Mojo, The Bard, & Me

 

How like a younker or a prodigal

The scarfed bark puts from her native bay,

Hugg’d and embraced by the strumpet wind!

How like a prodigal does she return,

With over-weather’d ribs, and ragged sails,

Lean, rent, and beggar’d by the strumpet wind!

-Gratiano

The Merchant of Venice                Act II, scene v, line 71

Gratiano and Salarino are waiting for Lorenzo outside Shylock’s house. They begin by talking about how he’s late, and that he shouldn’t be because lovers ever run before the clock. They are meeting at Shylock’s house because Lorenzo is picking up Jessica.

Gratiano and Salarino get into a discussion about how new lovers are eager to be with each other. This then leads into talk about different scenarios where people or things are eager when going into any new endeavor, and something less than eager on the other end of it. Hence, in Today’s Totally Random Line a well trimmed sailboat, a scarfed bark, leaves the bay embraced by the strumpet wind. She returns after being at sea lean, rent and beggar’d by the strumpet wind: eager at the start, something less than eager at the return.   

I suppose we can apply this line of thinking to just about anything in life.

And here's a perfect example of just such a scenario. This is a graph of my weight since I started a new eating plan in early May. You can see that I dropped about ten pounds in the first weeks. However, since late June/early July I haven't gone any further; just up and down since then. 

What happened to the scarfed bark embraced by the strumpet wind?