Cathedral of the World: Sailing Notes for a Blue Planet

There's nothing like open sea to send the mind off on meditative musings. Arms has done a lot of sailing--and a lot of musing. Here, the author of Riddle of the Ice offers 20 philosophical essays that reflect both the interior and exterior voyages he has taken over the years. Arms treats the sea as a cathedral, a place that inspires reverence for the natural world, a place in which it is appropriate to let the mind and soul chase after the big questions. And chase he does, speculating on people, life lessons, the planet and the future. In ""Charts and Other Fiction,"" he writes of learning, as a boy, that it is as important to be aware of what nautical charts do not show as what they do--the uncharted rocks and shoals knowable only by self-discovery. Variations of this lesson appear throughout these thoughtful essays as Arms emphasizes that wisdom is obtainable only through experience and that, no matter how expert we are and no matter how thoroughly we plan (or chart a course), we must always leave room for intuition and an openness to the moment (or the prevailing wind). ""What is a cathedral after all,"" he asks, ""but a place to go as we seek to understand how the cosmos works, and what our proper place is in it?"" Brief as these essays are, they are pungent and, at their best, as refreshing as a blast of sea spray. (Jan.)