St. Martin's Cloak
The Cloak is a collection of audio vignettes—stories that reveal parishioners’ faith journeys. Share your thoughts by sending us an e-mail.
There’s a great sense of peacefulness out there, even when it’s windy and blowing and you’re fighting a chop.
Jack Coleman
For Jack Coleman, kayaking is a passion. Listen as he takes us on a paddle down the Schuylkill River.
The Schuylkill can get, one would think it might get monotonous, and it can get monotonous. But I feel an enormous sense of superiority over these scullers, because I can see where I’m going. (Laughs) Although they’re twice as fast as I am. But, for instance, the other day coming up I saw a black crested night heron—just came swimming up, about 20 feet away, flying up against the river …. Whenever you go down there’s all kind of bird life and the big fish are flopping out of the water and the effect of the sun and even the light off the buildings; at night the bridges have electric, colored lights on them. So it’s always different. And if it’s raining or if it’s windy there’s a little chop, there’s white caps on the river. It’s always the same, and yet it’s different. So I never go down there [and feel] bored. It’s the same but it’s not the same. And so it’s a wonderful place to go.
There’s a great sense of peacefulness out there, even when it’s windy and blowing and you’re fighting a chop. It’s … there’s something about the physicality of it as well as the sort of the beauty of it: the water, the light, the trees. You can feel very enclosed, almost like a tunnel, at times. The little duckings and always the turtles. Everywhere there’re turtles. It … there’s a kind of rhythm to it. At different times of the year you can see different kinds of animals out there. Different activities on the river. It’s cyclical, it’s sort of rhythmic, it’s life. I haven’t seen much death out there but that happens, too.
So I think it’s kind of like a lesson in life. I mean, the river of life—it’s one of the oldest metaphors. But I think about that a lot, actually. I mean, where do you end up, where do you end up in the river of life? What mudflat do you end up washing up on and staying? Or what rapids do you go through, or difficulties? What new vistas emerge? Life closes in, gets restricted, or it opens up. You know, all these kinds of things. You can see all that. I don’t think I dwell on it but it’s there. It’s part of the fun of it, in a way. It’s a lesson.