[ IP ] The fishermen know that the sea is dangerous ...

As he boarded the Banshee, he did not waste a moment pondering the name. Years ago he may have wondered why his trusted steed should bear a moniker invoking a wailing warning. A lifetime of pilgrimage made the irony rusty. 
 
 Perhaps, a lifetime of pilgrimage is redundant. Each of us is born on a journey, and we must decide what is holy along the way. Though men like Ronan would never call it a decision, they decide it is their calling all the same. 
 
 To them, the sea is testament, prophet, and altar. More powerful and merciful than Yahweh. A boddhisatva with infinite arms. A sacrificial lamb endlessly thrashing against the rocks so it may sustain its wards. More Destructive than Shiva. More bountiful than the Garden of Eden. More vengeful than Mount Olympus. More liberating than Moses. It is both the body and the blood of the creator. To wade in its water is communion, and each sea breeze offers a chance to be baptized. 
 
 How often Ronan had looked out at the throbbing frothy mass in awe and wonder. While his nets became swollen with fish, he would sit on deck basking in the glint of the water and listening to the ocean's om. 
 
 But there was no quiet meditation now. Not after Ronan learned that there is more than one market price for the fish that he captures. The sea is a shrewd proprietor, she remembers what you take and she finds her way of getting just compensation. Ronan was a talented fisherman, and had caught seemingly countless bass and cod. Still, a peverse curiosity gnawed away at him- `` just how many bass was my son's life worth? and how many must I have caught to justify taking my wife just three months later?'' 
 
 The neighbors whispered, `` how he could get back on the boat after what happened?'' But what else was Ronan to do? The sea had given him a purpose in life, and now had taken away his reason for living it. The sea had made sure she was all he had left. 
 
 Every day he roams the deck like a widow's walk, surveying the ancient graveyard. Yes, the name Banshee is actually quite fitting.
