Ruckert's Days As A Flotation Device

Ruckert told the doctor that he felt as if he had been thrown from a boat.

The doctor asked if he thought he had the strength to swim.

“Strength is not an issue,” Ruckert said. “It’s a matter of desire. Where would I swim to? I can see no land in any direction.”

Did he feel, then, as if he were treading water or drowning? the doctor inquired.

“No,” Ruckert said, and felt certain he was being truthful. “I feel as if I am floating. Despite the muddle I have been describing, I continue to sense that I am being borne by blessings and the most buoyant of mercies, and I believe for some unknown reason that I will eventually be carried to where I belong.”

The doctor wondered if Ruckert didn’t perhaps feel some greater sense of personal responsibility for his fate, or at the very least recognize that some effort or work was called for.

“Do you not realize,” Ruckert said, “what difficult work it is to float, and how taxing is the maintenance of even so simple and clumsy a faith?”