There is no doubt about it, the exhilarating state of mind that travel can evoke, when everything seems suddenly fresh, vivid, intensely interesting, and memorable.
Life without walls on ships, planes and bikes puts you in a singular category---One of the privileged homeless. It frees you up--In fact, every act of perception is to some degree an act of creation, and every act of memory is to some degree an act of imagination.
Any original blog post, Tweet or Facebook Status update, no matter how trivial, produces an ecstasy similar to that of first love,again and again.
Every day is a journey," wrote Basho, "and the journey itself is home."
If the Zen poet hadn't said that more than 300 years ago, I would have. I am Basho on a frequent flyer pass, with complimentary mojo on take off.
We're all just walking each other home.
I think of my job(s) on ship(s) as leading people to those moments of awe that overtakes you when you encounter a new idea, or place---like my trip to Burma two years ago to date:
Yangoon-One Hand Clapping- Smiling With One Lip
Cnn verses The Alphabet
Yangoon's analog eyes don’t see our digital world. But does it matter. Internet or InterNOT? Traveling in places with out electricity with TCN's, Third Country Nationals, are not voyages of discovery, but rituals of reassurance- "I won the lottery". As Bruce Springsteen says, "I was born in the USA". So with,curiosity, vulnerability and vocabulary, I will articulate the Myanmar sound bite.
These ppl in Burma, aka Golden land, are so sweet, Yet they are the digital homeless, who couldn’t tell you the difference between google and facebook, a laptop or an ipad. The largest experiment in anarchy that we have ever had is not the internet, it's Mynmar. My conscious, however, permits me to love them.
How To Buy Nothing----DetermiNATION Mynmar.
How To Buy Nothing----DetermiNATION Mynmar.
No TV. No Logos. No Mc Donalds's. No McDonnell Douglas. Few cell phones. A sim card costs $500 and the phone system is broken. Few cars. There is no CNN, 24 hour news cycle, no tivoization to time shift your day, no napsterization or digital downloads-this is the "axis of evil" the millions of ppl who make less than $2 bucks a day. Countries, like ppl however, are loved for their failures. It's a shame I can't spend any money in this place and help the dam economy. I am unable to buy anything for 72 hours.
What Happened to Downtime? Deep Thinking & Sacred Space in the United States of Uncoinsciousness is extinct verses the real deal--- Living in a quasi “airplane mode.”For the uninitiated, and digital homeless- setting their lives to “airplane mode” disables phone calls, text messaging, wi-fi, Bluetooth, and GPS. It is distinct. It's their blisscipline.
Traveling is a Life Sentence--We yearn for journeys like prisoners dream of rooms without bars. And we all want time off for good behavior.
What Happened to Downtime? Deep Thinking & Sacred Space in the United States of Uncoinsciousness is extinct verses the real deal--- Living in a quasi “airplane mode.”For the uninitiated, and digital homeless- setting their lives to “airplane mode” disables phone calls, text messaging, wi-fi, Bluetooth, and GPS. It is distinct. It's their blisscipline.
Traveling is a Life Sentence--We yearn for journeys like prisoners dream of rooms without bars. And we all want time off for good behavior.
Raman Noodles 2.0 Choosing between the digital and the analog.Arguing against the laws of gravity. If Ramen noodles are a dish of effortless purity than Yangoon's outdoor market of fresh produce, the egg or tea, gives you oodles and oodles of these ubiquitous states of grace with a marriage of nothing more than hot water.
I visited today one of the seven wonders of a shrinking planet-Google, and came up with this comment, Iw rote on my 1995 trip to Cambodia, where I made the astute comment--Give a man a fish, and you feed him for a day-Give him Raman noodles and you don't have to teach him anything!
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#Winning is like shaving your head - you do it every day or you wind up looking like a bum-Be Brave and Shave! |
The fact that there is no refrigeration and everybody is hustling to eat someting for the day, Yangoon will stick with you like gum in your hair until you get it out with peanut butter.
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| Eat Your Colors |
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| Cuteness |
Tune in Turn on Drop Out! and Be Here Now.
Freedom is what you do with what has been done to you. As I said, I was born in the USA, and being born there-my life has to be my message-Star-spangled happiness,: because love is a responsibility and I love America, and its A list language, American.
Hugs and Drugs
The joke goes, you call a person who speaks 3 languages trilingual, 2, bilingual, 1, American. What is the most powerful drug known to mankind? American English. I used to have a "drug" problem but now I make enough money, and found my voice.
Write? Right.
Blogging is literature in a hurry. People climb mountain because they are there. In blogging there is no there there. Why do bloggers blog ? Because it isn't there. It's always shifting and changing and the searching that makes it fun.
Long-Term Travel
The Committee to Ascribe a Naval Origin to Everything Is Now In Session. Give me a wide berth, I’m a loose cannon and three sheets to the wind. Anchors aweigh...
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There are three sorts of people; those who are alive, those who are dead, and those who are at sea.
As long as I am on a ship, the future is full of possibilities that I must constantly shoot in the head, because if you want something GR8, you must be able to limit yourself. "I haven't been everywhere, but it is on my list". Nothing of importance happens accidentally in our life. I am so glad I have been able to do long-term travel, and doing it on cruise ships.
Normal people need three things to travel-Time, Money and Opportunity. As an abnormal person doing abnormal things---It has never been about resources.
You see, I am the Bobby Fisher of resourcefulness, the Cosmo Kramer of planning , the Curious George of predictable unpredictability. >note to self< Rock on man with the yellow hat, rock on. No matter how low the budget bar gets, I always manage to limbo my way under it. If you think about it, I am the Wilt Chamberlain of shoe-string travel. I'm putting up numbers so unthinkable that normals will never, ever reach them.-300 ports in 365 days.
If I do nothing unexpected, nothing unexpected happens. Yet I’m not simply seeking interesting surroundings, but I am continually interested in whatever surrounds me.
Retrospect: The Persistence of Time-The 2011 World Cruise
Retrospect: The Persistence of Time: Hawaii
That is what we are supposed to do when we are at our best - make it all up - but make it up so truly that later it will happen that way." ...
"I showed up In Hawaii and magical things began to happen.
It all started with the simple decision-to go.
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| Helped By Hidden Hands-Huna |
Retrospect:The Persistence Of Norway
Before, Norway, Earth Goddess was just a yuppie salad dressing you could buy at Whole Foods. I never thought that people died. They just went to organic health food stores... and that Japanese guy who always wins the hot dog eating contest is the anti-christ.
Today as I kayak in the fjords and observe the sun, the water, the green and everything in flow, I say to myself "Yes indeed, all this belongs to me!". and, more than that,I play a role in its appearance.
Before, Norway, Earth Goddess was just a yuppie salad dressing you could buy at Whole Foods. I never thought that people died. They just went to organic health food stores... and that Japanese guy who always wins the hot dog eating contest is the anti-christ.
Today as I kayak in the fjords and observe the sun, the water, the green and everything in flow, I say to myself "Yes indeed, all this belongs to me!". and, more than that,I play a role in its appearance.
