“After the Downing” web site is a note collecting platform meant as a sequel to the book “After the Drowning of Money island”.
The history: Afterthedrowning.com was launched in June 2019 when I realized that the story of Money Island, New Jersey was more than could be explained in straightforward factual terms. It is certainly more than contained in the book, even more than the 2/3 of the work of write Andrew Lewis that was cut out during the editing process by Beacon House. It is more than a string of bad luck events, more than natural climate change response, more than people behaving badly, or more than some kind of larger criminal conspiracy as others actually suggest from time to time. Each of these may play some role in the drama but, still, it does not add up to explain the whole story.
The premise: I still don’t have a reasonable factual explanation that fits the bizarre range of events and observations in the story. Yet I presume that I can learn from all this despite the lack of reasonableness. I also think that an unstructured process of assembling and documenting bits and pieces of the story may eventually lead to a better understanding of the whole story. To a lesser extent, I think that the story might be useful to someone in the future.
A spiritual approach: Throwing out the list of possible worldly explanations means that there might be an alternate explanation. Maybe I should consider a spiritual explanation for my own learning purposes. Maybe it’s more about the journey than the story itself. Maybe I’m even meant to learn to grow and thrive in the chaos. I’m not sure how I feel about adopting a spiritual explanation but historically this is what humans do to cope with stress that they do not understand.
Sharing the story: Maybe sharing the story is just the best way I have to cope with the stress and nothing more. I’m very much aware that my actual work to assemble the stories is a stress response. It comes together late at night when I can’t sleep. I’m also aware of the probability that I will not survive this story. That is not meant as a morbid forecast of my own demise but rather as an assessment of the risks that I do understand and the most likely timetable. The risks are large compared to the human body’s ability to endure. My intent is to write, record and gather information about it to create a record for anyone who may care to look later.
About the cover poem:
Do not go gentle into that good night
Dylan Thomas, 1952
Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
Because their words had forked no lightning they
Do not go gentle into that good night.Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright
Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,
And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,
Do not go gentle into that good night.Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight
Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.And you, my father, there on the sad height,
Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray.
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.