This opening line from Moby Dick has always riveted my imagination. There is expectation and foreboding wrapped in these three words. I don't know why this has been with me for the past days. The words keep coming to the forefront of my mind and I sometimes say them aloud when no one is in earshot. Were I to have the opportunity now, I would name a son "Ishmael", and maybe even get away with naming a daughter "Ishmaela". I'd have a little explaining to do later, but I think once the literary distinction was explained that understanding daughter would be proud to have the moniker.
Seriously....."Call me Ishmael" opens the door to a life-chamging series of adventures and harrowing events for a young man who signed on to a Nantucket whaling ship in search of something new. He is a pilgrim in a way....one not quite sure about what is to come...a pilgrim on a voyage of discovery.
I would think at some point in our lives that we all would want to be called Ishmael.
Call me Ismael
SRH
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