She was magnificent. And then. She wasn’t.

The Peter Iredale was a majestic four-masted steel barque sailing vessel. She ran aground on the north Oregon coast on October 25th, 1906. As I stood on the beach looking at her steel frame that has survived more than one hundred years, I couldn’t help but think about our nation.

We are floundering. We are running aground. Miraculously, no lives were lost on the Peter Iredale but in our shipwreck the loss of life – all life – is staggering. Will the structure of our democracy, of our country, of our values survive the wreckage of this time? What will we salvage from the wreckage?

Beannacht,
Judith – judith@stonefires.com