flores church

flores church - acrylic on class

This cartoony picture I painted on an old window someone had thrown away. It's of the church in Flores (in the Azores) just up the hill from where we tied up after a somewhat harrowing passage from Provincetown on Cape Cod. In a storm south of Newfoundland where we saw the biggest waves I'd ever seen at sea, one of my students asked me: "Rev, have you ever seen this before?" I wanted so badly to lie to her and say, "Oh yeah, many times." But I'm a terrible liar so I just retreated into the truth and said, "Not exactly, but I've been in other storms. We're in a good boat. All storms end and this one will too." Three days later the sun was out and we were reaching along at 8 or 9 knots when a huge white whale breached three times just astern off the starboard side. Its mouth was open and I remember seeing the teeth in its lower jaw as it splashed down. Several of us were on deck at the time and we all saw it as clear as anything I've ever seen. Only after it disappeared under the surface did someone tentatively ask the question we were all thinking: "What color was that whale?" I saw it with my own eyes and I still don't really "believe" it. When we got to Flores, I went to this church on Sunday morning and sat in the back row trying to follow along with the liturgy in Portuguese. I hardly understood a word, but it was all safe and sound and warm and good.