Something Sacred
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What supernatural event does the Coast Guardsman experience at sea?
Nine years old sitting in this church angry and my parents angry at these brethren in this place and now their preacher all puffed up Red-faced, bug-eyed, steps to the podium, commands us to open your Bible to Exodus 32.
Here! Brethren, Moses climbs the mountain to see God. Do the people wait patient? They do not. said they work with their forges, their ovens, with wickedness in their hearts, with evil. Then look right here, look here, look here, look here. They pull a golden calf from the flame. What do they do then? The very worst thing you can do. They call this thing, this abomination, a god. Who needs that other god? When this one gleams golden, Then they bow their heads before it, blast me. But know this, brethren, there's no surer way to summon the Lord than to mock him. The God that delivered them from slavery under Pharaoh stretches out his mighty hand and smites with fire and horror and pain for their betrayal.
Remember that. If you want to see God face to face, you remember that.
Anger has an idea. I snatch two hangers from the hall closet, bring them back to my bedroom, strip the wires from the hangers, bend them, fashion them, work it just so. Then I cover it, not with gold. I don't have any of that. Nah, instead, I wrap sheet after sheet of aluminum foil around it. pinch and shape it into a face, into horns, the body of a calf. I admire it for a moment. Beautiful. My own graven image. Then I wait for a lull in the ever-present noise of my household, peek outside my bedroom, down the hall, push the front door open, quiet, quiet, quiet. Pad down the front steps of her trailer, aluminum calf wrapped tight with my jacket, then I run. Out to the middle of the woods, my secret, fast, fast, run, run until I reach the spot, reverently.
Set the calf down on a patch of hard earth, but doubt stops me, fear. Then the anger returns, the fury. I have asked, begged their God to reveal itself as many ways as I know. Still, it judges me unworthy of even a word, even a whisper. Answer me. This is all I have left. So I steal myself. Look to the sky one last chance. Answer me. Then I drop to my knees, bow my head, and I pray to my own graven image.
Today on Snap Judgment, we proudly present something sacred. My name is from Washington. All that glitters is not aluminum when you're listening to Snap Judgment.
We begin headed out to sea to meet Jordan. Now Jordan is fresh out of bootcamp and doing his very first unit with the Coast Guard on board a ship patrolling the waters off the East Coast. I'm gonna let Jordan take it from here.
It's half past midnight. I'm out here by myself on the catwalk, standing my watch, doing my lookout. This is a famous class cutter, bow to stern, 270 feet long. White with the famous US Coast Guard orange racing stripe on the front. At this point, the ship is off the coast of New England. Even being late spring, it's still pretty cold. The wind is blowing. I'm bundled up in what we call a float coat, essentially a rain jacket with a life jacket built into it. It was a pretty dark night. It was very starry out, but the moon had very little illumination this particular night. So I'm using night vision goggles and I'm looking for hazards, essentially. Things floating in the water, other ships that we might not see on radar.
At this point, I'm about an hour and a half into my watch.
What challenges do hula sisters face before their performance at the Merrie Monarch Festival?
It's been a pretty quiet night. I'm doing a scan with my night vision, just looking towards the front of the ship, and I see there's a person standing at the forward-most point of the bow, about 70 feet away from me, with his arms outstretched. It's the middle of the night. There aren't very many people awake at this point, and for someone to be out there in the pitch-black darkness standing on the front of the ship. That rings alarm bells in my head. I'm concerned about the worst case scenario that this person is out there with the intent to jump off. Right away, I have to look again. You know, did I actually just see that? I pick up my NVGs again and look out and it's very clearly a person standing there.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What supernatural event does the Coast Guardsman experience at sea?
0:02–6:50
2
What challenges do hula sisters face before their performance at the Merrie Monarch Festival?
6:50–12:56
3
How does the Coast Guardsman describe the eerie figure he sees on the ship?
12:56–20:05
4
What is the significance of the shadowy figure to the Coast Guardsman?
20:05–26:54
5
How do the hula sisters prepare for their performance amidst unexpected weather?
26:54–32:13
6
What feelings arise in the dancers as they prepare for the competition?
32:13–38:49
7
What decision do the hula sisters make regarding their performance during the storm?
38:49–45:13
8
What impact does the storm have on the Merrie Monarch Festival and the dancers' performance?
45:13–48:17