Hero Re-Wets his Feet

It's a white pursuit, offshore racing, and I'm a soul brother. But that's how strange life gets sometimes. Last week, a set of astral dominoes fell all in a line and landed at my feet: One minute I'm a rap star and street hustler, the next I'm a crewman on board a race boat. The race is the 100th Bermuda Race, 630-something miles from Newport to St. David's Head, Bermuda, starting next Wednesday, June 16 - Bloomsday, to you fellow alumni of Prof. Terence Dewsnap's course, Ulysses .

I'm chaff on board this vessel, a 48-foot lightnin' titan named Dreamcatcher. My older brother is the watch captain (that's how I got aboard), and I'm very much the new guy: Chaff, as I said. That's fine. Hero needs a touch of humbling after a high-flying Spring of seemingly Limitless Success. When will the easy days ever end? I've lately wondered, aloud to myself, while I cried in the shower.

Into the ineluctable reality of the visible...