call me philip nolan

It was the sixth grade -- if my memory is correct.

I picked up a copy of Edward Everett Hales's "The Man Without a Country."  And I was hooked.

You know the story.  American Army lieutenant Philip Nolan is swept up in Aaron Burr's dreams of a western empire.  During his trial for treason, Nolan renounces his allegiance to the United States.  The judge, who seemingly has no sense of irony when the Barbra Streisand syndrome possesses the morally obtuse, sentences Nolan to spend the rest of his life at sea.  And to never hear a scintilla of news about America.

I knew I had found a template for my life.  Of course, it was just the opposite of what Hales was preaching.  Hales's point was that every citizen belongs to his country "as you belong to your own mother."

I took away a different dream.  What a perfect life.  To live without a country.  To not be a person of place.  To be constantly on the move.

Yesterday Jennifer Rose commented that a project that has long fascinated me is back in the planning stages.  Freedom Ship.  A ship four times longer than the Queen Mary 2 that will circle the world twice a year.

And because it is too large to enter any port, it will anchor off major cities for days at a time.  The residents can then visit dry land by boats or aircraft.  Or they could simply live out a full life on this floating city.

The cost?  This is not public housing.  A 5,100 square feet unit will sell for $9,136,600; a 450 square feet unit for $212,500.  Oh, yes.  There are the monthly maintenance fees of $14,716 to $586.

But what a great dream!  To constantly circumnavigate the globe.  With new weather every few days.  New places to see.  New people to conquer.

And a dream that will not be mine.  I suspect this mobile community will not find the financing it needs to float its boat.  About $11 billion.

Instead, I will keep traveling as often as I can.  And Melaque will have to serve as my mobile community -- one that seems to have grounded itself on a reef.