Novacaine

Maybe I noticed this because I just came back from the dentist and my mouth is numb.  Regardless...

I had to go to the post office and local CVS after my dental appointment.  I dropped off the prescription at the CVS and walked to the post office.  On the way back I spotted another dentist's office.  I spotted the office because before I did I saw something in the backyard of a home.  It was a boat. And the boat was named NOVACAINE.  I thought that a strange name for a boat, and then saw that the boat sat in the backyard of a dentist's home/office as there was a sign advertising the driller hanging from the shingles.

"Novacaine" is the name of a boat?  I often like to read the names of boats when I go to a pier.   My favorite was a boat, more like a yacht, I saw anchored at Montauk Point a few years ago. It was called Freilach.  A freilach is a happy merry dance or song.  It's a word my father and mother used to describe a joyous occasion or a particular uplifting song.

Maybe Novacaine is a bit of dental humor or perhaps the owner was making an allusion--as some boat owners do--to the provenance of the wealth that allowed for the boat.  Still, it seems like an odd name.  I could be, no pun desired, sensitive to this today as my mouth remains numb.  But Novacaine for your boat?

Too many people live their lives dulling themselves to the world's possibilities.  I count myself among this grouping on occasion and--when I feel this way--remind myself that time is a-wasting.   We have this one shot on the seas to stretch the metaphor, and we can either find a way to medicate ourselves against the inevitable pain that time on the planet can send our way, or find a way to dance a freilach.