The Storms of your life and mine

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You’re bound to find yourself in the fix sometimes – and usually, it’s because you where just not paying enough attention; if you cut your finger slicing a carrot, 9 out of 10, your mind was elsewhere – if you make a stupid comment in a conference – 9 out of 10, you were probably so open minded you brains were spilling out.

Like today; my batteries are empty; that just means; if anything goes wrong; I am fucked; how did that happen? Well I just hooked it all up and believe it or not. I didn’t bother to turn on the switch! – So here I am now; right out smack in the Straits far from the smell of the land and nothing works (just wished I had an Opera Singer next to me, as only she can handle the high seas (high C’s) – sailing without batteries is like travelling back in time 14th century style – everything has to be done agak agak (intuitively) – the wind is against me (but don’t have any idea how many knots she’s blowing) and just to East somewhere over the horizon a storm is might be brewing (again dont have any idea whether she coming or going) – but you never know; things can change very quickly and get ugly in a blink of an eye – I take a reading off a brass sextant; check off my position on a good old fashion map with a compass and divider. I am good (I think).

Coming back to the question: why do we find ourselves in a fix sometimes? I think a large chunk of it may have something to do with how most of us unknowingly;  live our life’s either in the distant past or somewhere in the future and the furthest place we are from is the very place we should be – the “nowness” i.e the present – that’s the only reason I can account for why I didn’t hook up my batteries properly. Or do things half heartedly – I guess a large part of it has to do with living the modern world; the very moment we wake up, we are inundated with everything that is designed to distract and remove us from the “nowness.” Advertisements; background music and “what happened when I was asleep?” To exacerbate matters living in the digital world; messes up our brains – we need to multitask (which to me is just a polite way of saying please be as distracted and unfocussed as possible); we need to work faster, be more efficient and productive etc – somewhere in the nucleus of all that swirl; it just creates the perfect conditions for our ego to surface – the one thing that I really like about the sea is it doesn’t tolerate egoistic people – you scale a storm wrong and you die; you tie a rope the way you think will work just to prove a point and it can very well tear your arms off your socket if it goes all wrong – but the worse part of the ego is you’re never ever here even when you’re right here – your mind is always somewhere over the horizon; so it’s darn difficult if impossible to find that mythical line – when you are so comfortable, confidence and assured that it just feels right; as I said, the sea doesn’t tolerate egoistic people; so I don’t mind admitting my flaws to you anymore than a vendor bothers when he decides to splay his goods out for sale pasar malam style – the cure for all this is to simply shed the past and forgo the future and focus on right now! All it takes is presence and “nowness,” – once you switch your mind to this mode; everything acquires a sense of clarity and sharpness – you really begin to notice stuff that you never did before (like why do I look so funny in the mirror?) and in sailing; you begin to notice the slightest pitch and yaw; the chrome of the wheel and how it reflects the paraffin blue sky overhead – the forward glide as it slices through the sea like a hot knife through butter. You’re really alive, even your fingertips can sense the grain of the rope when it’s seeded out.

That’s something that I believe we need to be more mindful of these days –the nowness and the present, not the past or the future. Especially in the digital age; as it can only mesmerize us all with it’s endless hype and spin; drawing us further from the center of our being –worse of all; it takes away all the beauty life has to offer;  wind is just wind, water is just water and as for sailing it’s just a way of getting from A to B.

But once you throw that switch somewhere in your head – everything begins to assume the right scale and perspective – you begin to feel the pulse of the wind against your face; you’re suddenly aware of your sense of being – and you just know deep down inside you; the only thing that matter is the “nowness,” not what happened last week or who said what to you or what will happen next month etc – all those distractions just get blown away.

And with that state of mind; even if you have to face some symbolic storm – be it unemployment; working with an evil boss or just having to deal with some challenge in your life – it all just grist to the mill. Once you’re stripped yourself naked to your elemental being as to who you are and why you are placed on this planet – anything is possible; including going through a perfect storm – granted, once that storm is over you may not even know how you made it through the other side; for all you know she just spat you out like a seed

 

But one thing will endure. One thing is certain. When you come out of that storm you won’t ever be the same person who once found yourself swirling in it before.

 

That’s what sailing is all about; it’s not about cruising along in calm seas; is all about squaring off the storms in your life to make you a better human being; I don’t just mean physical storms but allegorical ones as well – shattered dreams, broken relationships, disappointments, what if’s etc that’s the one place that is often disregarded by most people IMHO. And that could also explain why most people these days can’t stand the idea of doing anything alone; they rather be distracted and removed from reality – but that’s like sweeping the dust underneath your carpet.

 

My gut feel tells me the best place to begin making the world a better place starts deep down inside you – only when you have sorted out that great mess can goodness really begin to radiate out and change the world in a meaningful way – as for talking, speeches and what a legend I am in my own mind, it’s just makes no sense to me – batteries not included.

That’s the first lesson sailing teaches the apprentice – humility.

Darkness 2010 – The Brotherhood Press 2010

If you are in the mood for travelling, do check out the latest Brotherhood Travelogue – check this out:  

 Munich – A Diary of strange events

Munich – The Heart of Darkness – Travelogue

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Let’s be clear abt Wayang Party. Was it worth it? Well it depends who you ask. If you ask the Council of the Wise. They will say “no” emphatically and probably label us a bunch of troublemakers albeit listing me as enemy No.1. But look here on record. I told WP not to play with fire repeatedly. On record I told them not to fake nonexistent cyber attacks repeatedly. Is that a big deal? Well you go figure it out because a firm that is worth 12 Billion called Google just happens to think the same. So you decide whether I was right or wrong.

But you are not going to get away that easily, because when all this shit was flying around; the only people who stood up and fought it squarely were me and my little crew. We took a position. We all realized the cost would be high.

And what was it all for – it was for the truth. The difference between me and my crew and the Council is this; to them the truth can be negotiated; I do not believe that is possible because one thing about the brother press is we call a spade a spade.

The rest of you just sat on your big fat asses and did absolutely fuck all – we on the otherhand put everything on the line and fought it as hard as we could – today, there are no more fake cyber attacks.

So my friend; this brings us to question: why didn;t you do anything? Let me share with you why? Because someone successfully sold you the stupid idea there is glory, dignity and wisdom in minding your own business and sitting on the fence. Surprise, surprise, there is none! Doing fuck all is exactly what it means in the literal sense doing fuck all! There is no glory there, unless you can convince me the goal in life is to impersonate a cactus.

And since you raised this subject let me smash another one of your fantasies; FYI, the type of people who regularly read the brotherhood press will always read the brotherhood press, rain, sleet or snow – don’t believe me go and ask, Majorie, Aurora, Francois, Inspir3d or even the Tim who runs Ekunaba – they are all the same crowd, it hasn’t changed – if the truth be known, we do not need quantity, that is a chimera – its chasing your own tail. What we need is quality not quantity. Approach any regular brotherhood press reader and the chances are he is a leader in his field of expertise; if he is as businessman, he is the top dog; if he is in the corporate world is the monkey who sits on the throne chair; if he is a student, he is the one that everyone aspires to emulate and so on and so forth – so you need to keep this screwed at the back of your head always –  sit a brotherhood reader down and ask him to write you a 5 figure cheque and the chances are providing you argue your case convincingly he will take out his bearer bonds from his safe and hand it to you!  It’s that simple.

You go to Temasek Review and past the hat around; and see what you end up with; all you will end up with is one tic tac, a strip of chewing gum, a toto ticket and probably a bunny’s foot.

That’s the difference that makes all the difference in a place called blogosphere – so don’t blame me if the servers are in Germany now and not in Singapore! I didn’t add anything to the water supply to influence the decision of the Confederation to vote against the Council!

If you want to blame anyone for this irreversible situation; go and find out who was the one who signed off on the whole idea of faking Doss attacks in the Singapore Blogosphere – I have a feeling the only net he will be managing once his bosses begin to tabulate the losses is a fishing net somewhere in the next Singapore Expedition to the North Pole.”

Darkness 2010

Recent conversation captured in Munich by an auto-bot crawler – recorded by the Chronicler in the book of Ages – The Brotherhood Press 2010.