When the seas are rough and the waves reach 7 ft, white capping over the bow of the ship as I pull the line of 150ft rope with 75 ft of chain and a 30lb anchor, 40 degree water splashing on my face, soaked from head to toe, I think to my self, "Is this worth the $30 a day and these ungrateful no tipping s.o.b.'s throwing up on the side of the boat I'll have to spend 3 hours washing when we port, tired and cold and wet?" Then I look out at the Aleutian Mountain range glowing with the morning light and I wish I was retired, with a boat of my own so that I could chose not to go out when the waters are rough, only fishing when the the tide is down and the water looks like glass.
Sometimes when you know something just isn't for you, you've got to swallow your pride, pack up and move on. I'm not disappointed though, in my mind, I took a week long vacation in the last frontier, learned how to deck hand a halibut fishing boat, caught two of the biggest fish I've ever caught in my life, ate 'em, and I got to see one of the most beautiful corners of the world. This was a good vacation. I only dread the heat and working another summer in the mid west. Come home.
Thinking Thoughts of Merry-Madness
Lately I've been considering the necessity of thought. Is it? Of course, something as natural as breathing is going to be difficult to get rid of, if it someday turns out to be unnecessary. Shocked as you may be after a statement like that consider the word Government. Begins with 'govern' which means to control and ends with 'ment' which is mente or mind. Govern + mente = to control the mind. Thinking, whether on the course to enlightenment or as the loyal subject of the new republic is a clinging to the old world. My instincts and heart tend to keep me out of trouble anyway, although it is aided by some rosy colored spectacles and this old monkey on my shoulder. We have to learn to just Be.
Do words mean anything? Really!? Just lexical symbols to represent ideas. Ideas inside our heads which form pictures of things we see in the world of our experience. Its symbolic alchemy to arrange the letters which mean nothing unto themselves but when placed in specific orders and combined they take on meaning. Words begin to appear. Mastering words produces sentences. Where the meaning begins to take on layers. Words, abstract constructs, Command and commemorate, clarify and congratulate, criticize and consummate, they are the pillars of meaning in our understanding of things. Why have the beautiful ones been abandoned? Why have we chosen to stop thinking for ourselves? I want to see words like philanthropist and cynosure, epiphany, ethereal, soliloquy, potamophilous.
Good night.
Wednesday, December 19, 2007
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