{"id":1747,"date":"2020-08-09T16:09:29","date_gmt":"2020-08-09T16:09:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/robertmangeot.com\/?p=1747"},"modified":"2020-08-09T16:36:53","modified_gmt":"2020-08-09T16:36:53","slug":"captain-of-my-choices-an-essay","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/robertmangeot.com\/?p=1747","title":{"rendered":"Captain of My Choices: An Essay"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Life is a series of choices. They come at you bam, bam, bam from cradle to grave. We\u2019re hard-wired for it. As little kids, we\u2019re choosing a favorite rattle or middle-of-the-night wailing slot before we\u2019re even aware a choice was involved. Parents know this via age-old wisdom, and though as adults they\u2019re making horrible choices themselves, they try to get their kids choosing better.<\/p>\n

There are countless choices at a supermarket. For example, store-brand Froot Loops always seem sketchy somehow, but they are fifty cents cheaper. The greenish state of bananas weighed against your banana-eating forecast. Then there\u2019s the cat food aisle. The cat food aisle has a barrage of flavor combos, tuna and chicken and giblets. I don\u2019t picture what goes into giblets. That\u2019s a choice. Ignorance is bliss.<\/p>\n

The cans come in delicate broths or cheese bits or some fondue-ish suspension. With test-marketed names like Gourmet Grill and Fresh Catch. It\u2019s good fun choosing the flavors that your cats will decide they hate.<\/a> But there\u2019s one flavor that stops me cold there in the cat food aisle, muzak bouncing, stuck at some invisible crossroads.<\/p>\n

Sea Captain\u2019s Choice.<\/p>\n

This cat food hypnotizes me. Can\u2019t say why, which only deepens the allure. The can is simple and solid. A glimpse of two fish filets to keep us landlubbers grounded. No-nonsense, but no glitz either. And there\u2019s barely a cat pictured on the label. Yet, that name–that name, Sea Captain\u2019s Choice–that bluest blue label, the blue of tropical waters, island coves, buried treasure.<\/p>\n

What I think it is, it makes me wonder about the captain. What kind of man is he? Or she, if the family\u2019s daughters have taken the helm. A stern captain, to offer so consistent a p\u00e2t\u00e9 and so clean and tight a can design. A captain like this ventures through life with taut riggings and swabbed decks.<\/p>\n

Our captain has made choices. It\u2019s right there on the label. A cannonade of choices–and came to live with them. Like did they choose the sea, or did the sea choose them? The latter, I\u2019ve grown to believe. Destiny surrounds anyone born who braves the oceans for the sole purpose of cat food.<\/p>\n

More choices. Hard choices. Which fish are best among their catch, where to find them, why those primo selections remain unspecified on the label. It could be any fish, carp or marlin or even shark, caught or personally wrestled from the water anywhere<\/a>. Cagey, my captain. Another choice, never to be pinned down as you ply the seven seas after a dream.<\/p>\n

You need a crew for such an undertaking. A hearty crew, bosuns and mates. Another wave of choices, from who gets selected to how those brave sailors hired went to sea themselves. Some running from their crimes, some running toward cat food glory.<\/p>\n

Maybe that\u2019s why the Captain grabs me. I long for a captain. A steady hand to help chart my stars. Except, let\u2019s be blunt, I couldn\u2019t cut it in any sailing life, let alone under so formidable a command. Fact: I sunburn easy and prefer the shade. Fact: I like to sleep in. Fact: I have deplorable knot skills that I have chosen not to improve. Besides, if there is a call of the sea, I choose to hear it as a call to the Marriott swim-up bar. Sure, there was that time we went out twenty miles off Florida for gambling, but let\u2019s be honest: That was about the craps table and complimentary drinks.<\/p>\n

One day, the supermarket didn\u2019t have any Sea Captain\u2019s Choice. Not like they were out of stock. I mean, gone. The shelves had pushed the other cat foods together where Sea Captain\u2019s Choice had always been, how supermarkets choose to fool the untrained eye into believing the shelves are super stocked. The captain, gone. I worried. Had the Captain gotten out of the cat food game? Had they made a disastrous choice, say to chase a school of cod into a furious nor\u2019easter?<\/p>\n

Or had they made a terrible choice? Captain, did you leave half your crew to the Kracken so that the rest were spared? Did you dump your catch to escape a grasping whirlpool? Captain, what drives you to take such risks? Or did you make the ultimate sacrifice? You\u2019ve seen the movies: perfect storms, pirate clashes, megalodons. Anything can happen out there, when the sea chooses.<\/p>\n

At whatever stage of the grief process, I began reflecting on why this Captain mattered so much. I hadn\u2019t met them. I wasn\u2019t joining their quest. I don\u2019t eat the food. The cat does. Yet I stood there in the aisle, blocking the shelf guys and other shoppers, and slumped in unexpected loss.<\/p>\n

A choice. A last choice.<\/p>\n

My choice. I\u2019d chosen to fill in certain rough-sketch details about this Captain and their quest, down to their final reckoning. And I\u2019d chosen pretty well, if I might say so. It\u2019s more fun buying from Captain, My Captain than from any old blue can slingers. In life, choose fun where you can. Choose adventure, even if it\u2019s fiction.<\/p>\n

Well, I\u2019d overreacted. Sea Captain\u2019s Choice soon returned to the shelves. The supermarket had just been out of stock and just chose trickery to keep panic from setting in. Be that way, supermarket. I choose the high road. The high seas and that Captain my Captain forever beyond the horizon, a built-up fascination I\u2019ll never really understand.<\/p>\n

In life, we don\u2019t get all the answers. Only choices to make and the next questions each choice brings. Like, for one, why the hell do I have a cat anyway?<\/p>\n

Her choice, I guess.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Life is a series of choices. They come at you bam, bam, bam from cradle to grave. We\u2019re hard-wired for it. As little kids, we\u2019re choosing a favorite rattle or middle-of-the-night wailing slot before we\u2019re even aware a choice was involved. Parents know this via age-old wisdom, and though as adults they\u2019re making horrible choices… Continue reading Captain of My Choices: An Essay<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1753,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[8],"tags":[168,169,94,167,170],"class_list":["post-1747","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-humor","tag-cat-food","tag-hard-choices","tag-humor","tag-sea-captains","tag-the-kracken","entry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/robertmangeot.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Cod.jpg?fit=258%2C196&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3CG0W-sb","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":436,"url":"https:\/\/robertmangeot.com\/?p=436","url_meta":{"origin":1747,"position":0},"title":"Behind: “Death or Taxes”","author":"rtmcontrol","date":"August 24, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Behind the Writing Scenes of \"Death or Taxes,\" published in the July '14 issue of Mysterical-E. Summer 2011: it was that purplish state of dawn.\u00a0My eyes flew open.\u00a0My breath caught in my throat. Inspiration had come. It was ready to bubble out, like it or not. And I liked it.\u00a0In\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Crime, Mystery & Suspense"","block_context":{"text":"Crime, Mystery & Suspense","link":"https:\/\/robertmangeot.com\/?cat=10"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":90,"url":"https:\/\/robertmangeot.com\/?p=90","url_meta":{"origin":1747,"position":1},"title":"An Open Letter: Hey, Cucumber Guy","author":"rtmcontrol","date":"October 8, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Hey Cucumber Guy: An Open Letter You, Cucumber Guy. Yes, you. The one in the restaurant kitchen adding the cucumbers to the salads. You did it again. You\u00a0served me an otherwise well-crafted salad with cucumber slices like hockey pucks. What am I supposed to do with these? 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