“And all the ships at sea,” was the closing of Walter Winchell’s radio broadcast introduction. The phrase has a certain poignancy about it—a cross between Melville and Edmund Fitzgerald. The idea of being isolated at sea is foreign to most people, but it is truly as far from others as you can get on this planet. In ancient times the sea was considered evil. It was well-nigh unsurvivable and chaos monsters dwelt in its depths. In the book of Revelation, in God’s kingdom “the sea shall be no more.” But the economic fact is, it’s still cheaper to ship by sea than to fly things from here to there. Amazon seems to have made us forget just how complex delivery is. I was forcefully reminded of this the other day when I received an email saying that the Bibles were at sea. Literally. They’re on a boat in the middle of the Pacific, along with who knows what else.
Starboard view of the White Star Line passenger liner R.M.S. embarking on its ill-fated maiden voyage. April 10, 1912 Near Liverpool, Merseyside, England, UK
" data-orig-size="640,472" sizes="(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" data-image-title="R.M.S. Embarking on Fatal Maiden Voyage" data-orig-file="https://sawiggins.files.wordpress.com/2011/02/rms_titanic_3.jpg" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"\u00a9 The Mariners' Museum\/CORBIS","camera":"","caption":"Starboard view of the White Star Line passenger liner R.M.S. embarking on its ill-fated maiden voyage. April 10, 1912 Near Liverpool, Merseyside, England, UK","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"\u00a9 Corbis. All Rights Reserved.","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"R.M.S. Embarking on Fatal Maiden Voyage"}" width="300" data-medium-file="https://sawiggins.files.wordpress.com/2011/02/rms_titanic_3.jpg?w=300&h;=221" data-permalink="https://steveawiggins.com/2011/02/27/sinking-ships/r-m-s-embarking-on-fatal-maiden-voyage/" alt="" height="221" srcset="https://sawiggins.files.wordpress.com/2011/02/rms_titanic_3.jpg?w=300&h;=221 300w, https://sawiggins.files.wordpress.com/2011/02/rms_titanic_3.jpg?w=600&h;=442 600w, https://sawiggins.files.wordpress.com/2011/02/rms_titanic_3.jpg?w=150&h;=111 150w" class="size-medium wp-image-2852" data-large-file="https://sawiggins.files.wordpress.com/2011/02/rms_titanic_3.jpg?w=500" />This is only a parable
The vastness of the ocean makes humans painfully aware of our smallness. As does the Bible. I remember thinking, as a child, that those offering printed salvation did so from the goodness of their hearts. That may be part of the story, for sure, but Bibles are big business. Not as big as they used to be, but still not inconsequential. This was captured well by the character of Big Dan Teague in O Brother, Where Art Thou? “It all about the money, boys!” he shouts as he robs Everett and Delmar. Yes, that evangelist giving away Bibles may have your soul in mind, but your pocketbook too. Like those Bibles snuggled against crates of condoms and smart phones, it’s just business. You’ve got to keep the bottom line in mind.
Bibles can be a lucrative business. The Bible is, however, a large book—expensive to print and bind because it requires special paper thin enough to hold all that text. Such specialized work done domestically would drive the price of the Good Book out of comfortable profit margins. So the word of God is printed overseas and sent across the ocean by boat. There’s a parable deep within this hidden life of Scripture. The romance of the high seas—being completely isolated from land and its comforts. “Here be dragons,” the Hunt-Lenox Globe famously proclaimed, and that’s a parable too. That Bible in your hands comes with considerable cost. Even in a world where drones for personal delivery are not far off, the sea still surrounds us.