Jim, just a short note on anchors, shackles, and tethers.

[East Coast Hustle]

9/10. Would read again.

[Dysfunctional Cunt]

Roger I am very sorry about your uncle.

This is not only some of your most thought provoking work, it also scares the hell out of me.

My kids are my anchors.  Everyone else of any importance in my life is long distance. My family are all out of state.  

I've noticed the chains on those anchors are getting rusty as they start living their own lives. When they finally break, those rocks, well I have a few years to learn to swim right?

I think we need to secure more tethers in life. A give and take relationship, for me at least works better and lasts longer. With tethers, you can take them with you if you need to sail away for a while. As long as you have a secure anchor, you will make it back.



edited because I can't type on the damn phone....

[Jenne]

A good tether is hard for me to find.  Not because they aren't always there, but mostly because what looked like it was reciprocal ends up leeching and sucking me dry.  I'm a natural leader amongst my people, but I'm also someone that can be counted on when the chips are down and someone needs help.

But I'm not able to find that for myself.  The shackles that I thought were mere tethers are now weighing me down.  I have freed myself of many of them, and over the years have been careful to keep the anchors steadily holding as well.  Despite the fact they tended to drift as the storms have rocked my seas over and over again.  I have hull damage, and I leak constantly.  But I do have crews actively working on the repairs when they are allowed aboard.

It takes strength to recognize when you need a tether, and when you have to let it go before it shackles you and releases the few anchors you have around you.  And it's sad when you notice that after freeing the shackles, you miss them if only for the fact that tethers are not only hard to come by, but the ensuing sheer listless LONELINESS is hard to get a hold of and master.

My recent visit to my dad up north (probably one of if not THE last time, probably, before he's out this Fall) brought this home.  I really have so little support, and feel like there's no one sheltering me from these storms.  They rock me to and fro, and the ports I'm in are shallow and more apt to lay waste to my stability than to shore me up.  I don't feel I have the strength to find another port, though one is probably on the horizon.  But there's just so much that I can take without upending and going all Titanic on everyone.

[Jenne]

Also, to the OP.

[LMNO]

Dear Jenne,

Write more.  It's good.

Yours,
LMNO

[Jenne]

Dear Jenne,

Write more.  It's good.

Yours,
LMNO

Thank you. I should.  Soon, maybe.  I need to go take a walk outside. BRB after the weekend.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

I'm very fortunate to have my kids, who anchor me, and many friends to tether and shelter me. I'm about three weeks away from signing the papers that will free me from my greatest shackle. Sometimes I feel lonely but when I do I try to remember this:



This is me heartbroken, drunk, and passed out on a friend's couch because the idea of going home to my empty house was unbearable.

That might sound depressing, but I couldn't count how many times I've slept on her couch, because she has always been there for me, and so have my other wonderful friends. So when I feel lonely, I remember this picture and how not alone I am, and how lucky.

[Payne]

Oh fuck yes. I think I was trying a long time back for the "Anchor" idea, but ended up scrubbing it out and writing something else on the txt file with the Anchor brainstorm on it and posted THAT as Anchor instead.

On reading this far more developed idea I had a vision. If I can develop it further, I will.

[Triple Zero]

Nigel, first thing when I saw that photo was "cuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuute!" but that was before I read the heartbroken line so I dunno, yeah, it all adds up to you being lucky and not alone good for you

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

Nigel, first thing when I saw that photo was "cuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuute!" but that was before I read the heartbroken line so I dunno, yeah, it all adds up to you being lucky and not alone good for you

Aw thanks! That's what my friend thought too, that's why she took the picture. Also when I woke up all hung-over in the morning she was all "I took a picture of you sleeping and I'm going to post it on the internet!"

Eventually I stopped being heartbroken, but knowing there's always a place for me in their lives even (or especially) when I'm a wreck is very comforting.

[Juana]

Nigel, that picture is adorable. Glad it's better now, too.


I really, really like this, Howl. It's definitely making me look at a few things I've been avoiding examining.

You know what sucks? When you're someone's tether, but they're your shackle, and you're still afraid to let go for both your sakes'. I'm thinking I need to let everything go for a while, but I know I might just drown under my own weight. On the other hand, I might learn to swim properly and be able to give back what I get.

[Pope Pixie Pickle]

I'm finding it hard to tell the shackles from the tethers. If I was the sole occupier of my head I'd have more of a clue. My illness is a shackle, that is one thing I am sure of, with all the treatment I'm not getting it feels like I may drown. The tether stopping my drowning is Payne, but its a long assed length of rope, and as for the reprocicity I hope its mutual. My family might be tethers or shackles, its hard to see clearly with a fractured mind, logic does go a long way to sort through the mess, as roger rightly said. Hope is my only real anchor. I've never been a strong swimmer, my sea legs aren't so steady. I have cut my biggest shackles before and after misplacing my sanity and these have been replaced by new, internal ones. Honesty and trust are my other tethers, and the thing I need most is a map or a view of the stars as my lifeboat is getting kind of cramped.

I've always loved the sea and the coast though, so things could be worst.

[Freeky]

Bump.

[P3nT4gR4m]

Holy shit, I need to check out this forum more often if this is the kind of shit that's getting posted here!

An observation - anchors may become shackles. It's not always that clear cut. I had a partner who kept me afloat at one point in my life but who started dragging me down after I got back on my feet. I had to cut her loose or we were both going to get stuck in a bad place.

(desperately trying not to take the piss with these metaphors but it's not so easy)

[Jenne]

This was a great fread, I agree.