Blog Entry 6- Quote Response

"Some lived in it and never felt it but he knew it was all nada y pues nada y nada y pues nada" (Hemingway, p. 150).

I felt this quote from Ernest Hemingway's, "A Clean, Well-Lighted Place" was very important to the short story.  Throughout the story, the older waiter continues to stand up for the old man in the café, by questioning the waiter with the wife about why he has such strong feelings about wanting to get the old man to leave.  It is as if the older waiter cannot wrap his mind around the fact that the waiter with the wife has no empathy for the old man, and what it could possibly be like in his shoes.

At the point in the story when this quote is, everything became more clear for me.  The older waiter, like the old man, was lonely.  He did not have a wife, no family to go home to like the younger waiter did, and all he had in his life was "nada y pues nada" (Hemingway, p. 150).  So for him he could understand being in "a clean, well-lighted place" (Hemingway) to enjoy a glass of brandy and try to pass the time of loneliness in the dark of the night, rather than be in a dark, loud and undignified place (Hemingway).  I can somewhat relate to the old man and the waiter.  On long deployments, although I am surrounded by hundreds of people there is a sense of loneliness, missing your family you left behind. 

Laying in your rack late at night, when it is quite and dark is when the loneliness and sadness starts to set in, and makes the time pass so slow.  For me, my "clean, well-lighted place" (Hemingway) is the flight deck late at night.  Granted, it is dark outside, but not a creepy dark, but a calming dark (if that makes sense).  The ship is quieter at night, so all you hear are the waves crashing along side of the ship.  When you are way out in the middle of the ocean the algae glows in the dark and every now and then you can see streaks of light going by.  The streaks are dolphins playing in the waves of the ship.  It is the most amazing thing I have ever seen.  I would stay out there for hours just taking it all in and waiting for morning to come, to start my day all over.