Surely Jonah felt some comfort inside the whale. There was air to breathe, after all, and salty plankton broth, and some measure of warmth, and no sharks. 

Ultimately, of course, i suppose he was relieved to get out of there, but I bet he took some guilty pleasure curling up in a blubber bed or leaning up against a giant rib curved just right to support his aching back. 

I am having these thoughts because I violated something I guess is a core belief. I walked into the beast’s mouth on my own. Then I actively, consciously contributed to the good fortunes of our national car wreck in chief by having a drink in the bar of his hotel near the White House. It was a good drink, in fact, but obscenely overpriced. And it is a beautiful lobby, staffed full of people of many colors, from many lands, whose eyes I mostly had a hard time meeting. 

Will this experience change and purify me like Jonah’s did him? Only time will tell.