Flotsam

Wayward objects that float are there to be found, if you, as my mom would say, "open your good eye." I love the fantasy and serendipity of it. Especially when I paddle, because I gunkhole -- stick close to shore and keep a lookout for anything interesting -- I come across things either afloat, caught in vegetation along shore or half-buried in the mud. With my long double-bladed kayak paddle I can reach for and pry out things. Because my 2-1/2 paddling jaunts are solo and meditative, I always wonder what's the story with what I'm holding in my hand.

Actually the first "gift from the river" was the ceramic ram (below) that was in two pieces and wedged in still water near my front door step. It seemed a magical find and I wondered where it came from and how it got there. Did the piece break off when it hit or stopped at my lot flotation. Whose was it? The head is painted green but not the rest -- was the whole thing green at one time? Was the person who lost it sad? Where did it start its journey?

The above is a fishing lure that just came floating by my boat -- such happenstance. There's a wide river channel, but this, in a way, came to me. Looking like a ladybug, it's more charming than the other lures I've collected. Who lost it? What were they fishing for? How long had it been floating? If I were writing a children's book, I could tell the story from the viewpoint of the fish that saw it with a sigh of relief because it wouldn't get caught.

Then there's the little yellow boat. I spied something bright yellow along shore now the river is lower and it was jutting out of the mud. Where was the kid who was playing with this? Did it have a sail? Was it part of some other toy set? Again, where did it come from? How long was it there?

And then the beach ball. It was sitting, almost fully inflated, in a niche along the shore. Who lost it? Were a group of people playing with it -- on shore or on a boat? Did it get blown away in the wind so that they couldn't catch up and go after it? I hadn't seen a beach ball like this in a very long time -- it's the exact kind we played with as kids, and this ball here in Oregon took me right back to the shores of Keystone Lake in Pennsylvania where we dozens of post-war baby boomer cousins played together on Sundays.

The hat was sitting in the sand along shore. I can just imagine it flying off someone's head in the wind -- I always wear my Tilly hat when I'm on the water. It has a chin-band so it can't blow away, even in strong wind. I soaked the straw hat overnight to get out the sand. As soon as my boyfriend saw the hat, he confiscated it, and now with his purple sunglasses it's part of his essential banjo-bluesman look.

As I was writing this, I saw my blue boat go past. I keep it at my friend Mary's because her deck is lower and it's easier to get in and out of. She has a house-sitter who was taking her granddaughter for a paddle. I told them to keep their eyes open for treasures.

What's the difference between flotsam and jetsam? Flotsam is floating "wreckage" or cargo (or stuff in general), while jetsam is cargo that has been intentionally tossed, or jettisoned, from a ship to lighten the load in times of distress.