Once in the boat

The question comes up, recurringly,

among white males of my generation,

the one before most of them living:

once in the boat, how does one dis-

embark, gracefully? The rowing mode

teems with many compacted anticipa-

tions of a timely release, which is

to say, the elevation of one's oar,

on completing the honorable stroke.

In those days, at the same time, it

was not expected that the tastes we

assimilated would expire in travest-

ies, much less in our own time. The

275 GTS, for example, proclaimed no

special urgency to reject elegance,

in favor of provocative aggression.

Yet such was the new world model of-

fered to us, as if any of our lives

had presented that specification to

Pininfarina, or to any other of the

founts where our imagination was re-

freshed, perfectly, in those dreams

from the boat. Even then, we didn't

go crying to false Conservatism for

dire vengeance against the current.

Nowadays, that avenger comes to us;

and proposes to lie with the lambs,

but manages only a transitive case.

Suppose it were Friday, someone ur-

ges; put on a pretty record, wiser

voices call. Just as we thought we

were rowing, the blade still sharp

with its own command, Finish this.

Carrozzeria Pininfarina

Ferrari 275 GTS

mid-1960s

Bernard Plossu

Sénégal

1976