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Archive for September 2014

From Zero to Hero-Doing The Math

- - -- by Ed Reif»
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A Post Without Image


Working on Ships Has Been A Real Life Saver And Life-Extension
I had an expression  "I haven't been everywhere, but it is on my list." This was the psychology of my "future self".
People  are works in progress who mistakenly think they are finished. Hint. That is not the case.
Yet the power of time transforms our values and shapes our lives and profoundly influence the people we are going to become- For example young sailors pay good money to get tattoos removed that teenagers paid good money to get. and as Dan Gilbert, author of Stumbling on Happiness, in this TED Lecture adds, 
Middle-aged people rushed to divorce people who young adults rushed to marry. Older adults work hard to lose what middle-aged adults worked hard to gain. On and on and on. The question is, as a psychologist, that fascinates me is, why do we make decisions that our future selves so often regret? 

How inappropriate to call this planet Earth
when it is quite clearly Ocean.
"I used to think living and working on a ship was bad----so I stopped thinking! "

 PINCH ME!

Faith, I'm full of it! When I started on ships as an Art Dealer, I had no idea what was ahead of me, I had Zen Mind, Beginner;s Mind . Here I am after 6 hours on my first ship, a quick study.of call:

Cultivating optimism is like plugging into the experience machine




 I am looking at some of my adventures, which were nothing more than bad planning! The ease of remembering versus the difficulty of imagining. I can remember who I was 4 years ago, but I find it hard to imagine who and where I am going to be.

The power of Now, wherever I go there I am-gets trumped by a false belief- an illusion that history, my personal history, has just come to an end, that I have  just recently become the person  that I was always meant to be and will be for the rest of my  life.  That I am STUCK on a ship.

Therefore, NOW--- the present is a magic time. It's a watershed on the timeline. It's the moment at which I  finally become my self. Nevertheless, we are all works in progress, and the person I am right now is as transient, fleeting and temporary as the person I have been. Cruising-living and working on a ship reminds me of this.


ARISTOCAT- Docked In The Venice of America-Ft Lauderdale


REAL travel writing is about leading an interesting life and having a good time. It’s less about where you go and more about  who you go with or end up meeting along the way. 

  As I connect the dots, I am reminded of some previous versions of my "selves" that I met along the way...

The Geography Of Bliss

How can I compose a story big enough, deep enough and broad enough to encompass the reality of my life? When I’m at sea, immersed in action, I am the protagonist, You can't create experiences like this, you undergo them.

The power of narrative comes forth  when I am engaged in the telling.(or selling) of these accounts. see: I Walked The Walk



These next three links, however,  are before my LEFT brain got good at telling my RIGHT brain what to do:

An I For An Island- Living Well Is The Best Revenge

I think of my job as Art Director  as leading people to those moments of awe – ecstasy that overtakes you when you encounter a new idea, or place.  After all, the definition of ecstasy is that you are not doing your ordinary everyday routine....essentially stepping into an alternative reality...

Let The Orinoco Flow- One Year @Sea

In answer to the Question, "How long has he been drifting?"Celebrating One Year at Sea this week.It started in Rome Sweet Rome, then Santorini...I haven´t been everywhere, but it´s on my list...

Tranquility Base The Ego Has Landed

Space travel sure is fun. Greetings from the user-friendly universe---The Peoples Republic of Santa Monica;Home of The Mac Store, and Apple, the forbidden fruit.
First in January, I was in the Majik Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, a bit like Mars.
         Then in February, I went to The Land of Smiles, Thailand, and walked on the moon.
              Finally, in March and April, I had my head in the clouds with The Helium Report, winning and losing the American dream in Macau every night, playing high-stakes no limit- poker, on The Hong Kong Express...
“Whoever authors your story authorizes your actions.” When we tell our own story—and write our own autobiography, we truly begin to live more consciously and unfold our own myth---with  us as producer and director, going out to sea , in an infinity of hope, it's life's coming attraction, where we have final cut. There is, indeed, the uniqueness of inhabiting our own life when we follow our bliss and tell our own story. I think that the majority of people never get inside their own lives.   Read More Here

Here Are Some Of My Ships I lived and Worked On

Costa Atlantica-Who is driving the ship Capo (Schettino)
if you are here toasting champagne?Va Veni-Microsoft!

Celebrity Solstice- That's Greek To Me
Pacific Pearl P&O Australia 

Crystal Serenity- Why Pay Less?
Azamara Journey-Check Please

Golden Princess- Nature is More Cruise Ship Less
Princess Cruises-Alaska The GR8 Land
Royal Caribbean-Oasis of The Seas-
An Embarrassment of Coconuts
Disney Magic- As John DeLorean said "I'm going to Disneyland."
On The Disney Wonder looking at last years ship
that I was on, The Carnival Splendor that caught fire,



MSC Poesia- The  YOUniverse

My first extended stay In  Paradise was on America Hawaii Cruises. I just wanted a different experience, and I took the first job I could get, which was a deck hand. We sailed for seven  days and each day we had a port of call


Shoveling Sunshine


The definition of ecstasy is that you are not doing your ordinary everyday ho-hum existence. Shoveling sunshine in Hawaii beats a day at the office
.
.


SOMEDAY is the busiest day of the week-Get Busy!

The Accidental Sailor-Fun Employment

- - -- by Ed Reif»
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A Post Without Image

The winds of grace always blow for us
 but you have to raise your sails and just go. 

Putting the He in Hero, all action/adventure films have the same moral: Perseverance pays. Of all the things I am not very content at doing,living on land is the most outstanding. I was an armchair sea dog, growing up on LAWNGUYLAND(L.I.) New York, dreaming of going places, but I never stepped foot even in a motor boat, never started and therefore  I never failed.

 Those Who Do Not Move, Do Not Notice Their Chains

Considering how much inner "nomad" is in each of us, in adulthood I gave myself permission to LEAVE ASAP, and imaginatively re-create(d) my ID in line with my true allegiances of a place noted for second chances, Venice Beach, California.

Sea Change
How inappropriate to call this planet Earth when it is quite clearly Ocean.

Let The Orinoco Flow--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

 .My universe is made of stories, not atoms: land, air and sea travel and the power of now. If I wanted to be a multinational soul, I couldn't do it in cities where I taught English like New York or Los Angeles, Paris or Tokyo alone-I needed to get consecrated by sailing on the oceans. It's a wonderful thing to get rid of everything and everybody and just go some place where you don't know anyone; where, as Melville said,"God's one and only voice is Silence."

 Despite the undoubted camaraderie, the laughs, the jollies and the sense of tribalism that attends any cruising project, the profession remains a notoriously lonely one. Friendships are intense but brief; when the gig ends or the curtain runs down, you can soon find yourself back home staring at your cell phone and wondering if any of it really happened. Memories are short, time moves on, fame is transitory.

 Nothing fails like excess- 6 times around the world does build confidence- It's not real life but an alibi. It is like going out of your mind everyday- in order to come to your senses.  It is a blessing:
Rule of thumb is if I am not  embarrassed enough
 by who I was and what I did  last year,
 I  probably not learning enough!
The word “blessing” actually comes from the French blessure, which means “wound.” So, a blessing always has that other side to it, My cruising obsession (this invisible wound) is like a private religion. It’s where the bulk of my spirit is actually invested. Yet I have been divinely compensated.The wisdom of this excess is that We die to the present tense and are born again in future perfect---the heroes of our own lives.
Outdoors Is In Read more HERE.

 You can teach an old DOGma new tricks.  Neurons  that wire together fire together. I am not seeking a meaning to life, but the experience of being ALIVE. I am  longer hard-wired  per se for  cruise ships. My brain is plastic. The hunt for HAPPY is repetition. I enjoy the navel gazing concussions, the  Lakota-style sweat lodge ceremonies, the power of NEW and the power of NOW. That will never change.Life Extension: The "prescription" for  my happiness. I'm not going to the doctor or the mall, I'm  going on a trip.
Fade IN:  Leaving a ritual and habit of ordinary living,  I embarked  on an unplanned trip and became The  Accidental Sailor.  

For reasons of necessity rather than a sense of innate wanderlust, I am at sea because it gives  me something to do and a place to be. Magnetized and full of charisma, I always managed to stay on course, without realizing it. Sometimes I quip---Success at sea is continued enthusiasm despite failure after failure, because there are so many variables, but in the end, you don't quit jobs, you quit people. FunEmployment  has a limited lifespan. 

 Never heard of FunEmployment? It's the person who quits his job or takes advantage of being out of a "job" to have the time of their life. Instead of punching a clock, you head for the beach. In my case, the high seas. 
2012


2009

20,000 Leagues Into My Brain

Call it faith!  A passion for the possible. I am full of it, and shooting from the hip that is to say,  having an adventure is something more 

 but nothing less than bad planning.

I'm beginning to think that maybe it's not just how much I love being at sea. Maybe what matters is who I am when I’m  doing it. I’m my best self.   Character is doing what’s right when no one is looking. All of ones problems come from the inability to spend time quietly alone in ones "room".

cOPENhagen
As much as I detest   the travel (sometimes) —I love the writing and the introspection—the virtuous delights of organizing a disorganized country, itinerary or culture, and comparing it to my state of mind at that moment , stripping away the inessential and the second-rate, classifying all that remains in neat, terse blog posts, building a solid foundation with the bricks that these ports of call and at sea have thrown at me.

The winds of grace always blow for us  but you have to raise your sails and just go. 
Any port in a storm won't do. You need to be content with the weather of  the day-to-day-The whole secret  is to have NO FEAR. Never fear what will become of you, depend on no one. Written on the gates of hell is abandon all hope" Written in the heart and mind of a Buddha " reject all help"  Only then  are you freed.
The cure for anything is salt water -
 sweat, tears, or the sea....

  Sure living at sea is hours of boredom tinged with moments of hysteria- sometimes the waters are so rough you get sea sick, but I never found these as excuses to remain ashore except for biking…and it’s lonely at times, but I call that solitude. Freedom is not free but it is not for sale and can't be purchased in a 7 day cruise. Sure it's fun- all the food and drink and music and noise; but pleasure is not  happiness. Happiness is balance and following your bliss, and connecting with the divine. The  sea is the place I house  my soul and access my higher self.

There are three sorts of people; those who are alive, those who are dead, and those who are at sea.
An I For An Island
Living Well Is The Best Revenge
Jean Paul Sartre, the French Existentialist said, 
Freedom is what you do to what has been done to you
 I would value-add that by saying ,Freedom is what you do to what has been done to you by your own thoughts, words and actions.  (See my blog post As Seen On TV).

Mind, Body and SOL

- - -- by Ed Reif»
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A Post Without Image

ArtstoCAT
Ah Ft Lauderdale-the boats are smaller this month  60 meters long or less- due to the fact that  most are in The Hampton's or The Med. Yes!  Palm Trees, Spring Break, Retirement Homes, and Cheap Hotels. That's Central Florida and Daytona's Red Neck Riviera-but here, there may be a lot of foreigners who speak Spanish and Portuguese, but that is their second language-Money is their first. Welcome to The American Dream is all I can say.