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Let
us congregate for the Waterside community gam1
on the blue moon of May 31, 2007. Don't miss this once in a blue
moon opportunity to re-orient ourselves ~ and gauge where we have been,
where we are and where we are going ... as individuals and as a community.
Begin gathering 6PM at Somerby's Landing at the easternmost "historic
waye to the Waterside" (link within)
during the family event organized by the Commission for Diversity and
Tolerance (which will conclude"Peace Month"). Interactive
entertainment for the young (and young at heart) will be provided
by "The Sea Wall Singer" Jerry Leggett's touring "Peace
Bubble" (link
without) ~ with social exchange on the periphery. This event
will end around 7PM to 7:30PM, when the "Peace Bubble"
drifts off into the sunset. And
on that chord of harmony ...
-
All hail! Let the gam begin ~
with social exchange and "tidings" ~ announcement of the
gam's roster and discourse about upcoming events and forums
-
Complete the cairn-building2
~
entries in the Ship's log & transcript
-
Begin the "solvitur ambulado" (pre)amble3
~ eastward along the Waterside boardwalk, with a stop at Market Landing's
"generation foundation stone"4
at 8PM (around eight bells to conclude the Second Dog Watch (see
link
without for more insight).
- The
gam concludes with a moon watch at the easterly end of the boardwalk,
culiminating with ...
- The
full blue moon rise at 8:29PM ~ experience a "Once
in a Blue Moon Opportunity" ~ a cosmic "touchstone"
for the Waterside people's individual and collective progress
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1
A footnote retraced from footnote 1 of the link
within about gams and gamming: In Herman Melville's 1851 novel
Moby Dick, the narrator Ishmael asks (and answers) the same good question5
~ defining a gam as a "social meeting of two (or more) ships, generally
on a cruising ground." The
passage from that epic tale can be found on the pages opening Chapter
53 entitled, "The Gam":
"But
what is a Gam? You might wear out your index-finger running up and
down the columns of dictionaries, and never find the word, Dr. Johnson
never attained to that erudition; Noah Webster's ark does not hold
it. Nevertheless, this same expressive word has now for many years
been in constant use among some fifteen thousand true born Yankees.
Certainly, it needs a definition, and should be incorporated into
the Lexicon. With that view, let me learnedly define it.
"GAM.
NOUN - A social meeting of two (or more) Whaleships, generally on
a cruising-ground; when, after exchanging hails, they exchange visits
by boats' crews, the two captains remaining, for the time, on board
of one ship, and the two chief mates on the other.
"There
is another little item about Gamming which must not be forgotten here.
All professions have their own little peculiarities of detail ..."
Henceforth this being the accepted definition, explained and expanded
at Merriam-Webster
Online and American Heritage Dictionary at Bartleby.com
and printed versions. Of course, referring to "another little item
about gamming which must not be forgotten" ~
the Waterside people also profess our own "little peculiarities
of detail" as well, collectively and individually.
Fast forward nearly four generations after Melville's ponderous parable
~ when an adventurer and shipbuilder with the given name Columbus was
more wont to use the word "gam" to mean a friendly conversation
or visit between those more landlocked ~ identifying the bedside chair
he would set his ailing wife upon to encourage visits and conversations
with family as the "gamming chair."6
A
generation later, as one of today's generations of the
Waterside people ~ his granddaughter hoped to revive the word to
identify the Waterside gatherings held in a Motion of Comity ~ be they
large community gams or more intimate meets. The word seemed to have
(at)traction. And it was a beginning.
And inevitably
people ask the question: What is a gam? This offers the opportunity
to explain and expound and expand our horizons, exchanging the "certain
knowledge" imparted here and elsewhere. With many taking part in
the conversation.
2
At the upcoming gam, would hope to build at least one physical cairn
to mark that "we have come this far" ~ at the western-most
and eastern-most "historic wayes to the Waterside." (See the
cairn-building during the last blue moon milestone on July 29, 2004
at this link
within.) This symbolic event will be complemented by a webpage to
indicate the progress made here in the Waterside since that last blue
moon milestone ~ and the goals to reach by the next blue moon (which
will occur on December 31, 2009).
3 "Solvitur
ambulado" is a Latin proverb translated as "it is solved by
walking." Metaphorically (and physically) ~ this (pre)amble by
the Waterside will energize today's generations of the Waterside people
to resolve many outstanding issues ~ many of these looming large in
moons to come.
[E.g., the first of the consultant's public forums on "developing"
the NRA lots as some combination of park/parking commence by mid-July
(the New Buck Moon) with completion of the plan anticipated by the Full
Hunters Moon in October; The Newburyport School District must submit
a formal letter of intention to the Massachusetts School Building Authority
detailing necessary improvements to school facilities by the end of
July (The Full Buck Moon). And of course, no matter the results of the
May 22 override, there remains the feat ahead to improve and facilitate
education based upon the reorganization plan.]
4
Come to know more about the Waterside people's "generation foundation
stone" at this link
within.
5 A
footnote retraced from footnote 2 of the link within
about gams and gamming: Ishmael ~ being one of the
Knowing Ones ~ obviously knows to ask good questions and question
the answer. Though observe the monomaniacal Captain Ahab, who is interested
only in the answer to one question: "Hast seen the White Whale?"
At the Waterside community gams, both the questions and the quest will
be more far-reaching: Well-versed and diverse ~ extensive and comprehensive
~ entertaining and enlightening. Proposed and posed and posited (then
posted) by today's generations of the Waterside people who aspire to
become the Knowing Ones. Do you?
6
A footnote retraced from footnote 3 of the link
within about gams and gamming: Sometimes elaborate, more often
improvised from a sturdy Windsor chair, an oak barrel or the bosun's
chair (link
without) ~ the "gamming chair" would be used to transport
those less adept at seafaring (usually women and children) from one
ship to another. Securely tied into the gamming chair ~ the prospective
gammer would be dropped down to a dory or wherry then rowed over to
socialize with the other shipmasters' family. While
the officers and crew "gammed" amongst themselves ~ the women
would socialize, share news and sew, exchange sewing patterns or fabric
and such. The children would do what children are wont to do: explore
new hiding places, play and
gambol about ~ and scramble in and out of the way on deck.
Sometime
during the first
or second dog watch (4PM to 8PM) a dinner would be arranged by the
mistress of the hosting ship. (Provisions from all ships' galleys were
frequently shared for this special occasion ~ offering victuals beyond
the more mundane "square meal.") Amusing pastimes and musings
would be enjoyed on deck, and then the gam would end. Visitors would
then return to their own ship ~ some dropped down via the gamming chair
to the dory, rowed back and hoisted aboard to make the next leg of their
journey ~ recording the gam in both the ship's log and in personal journals.
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