Chronicles of ALife

A Love Supreme

2007-07-11T18:41:00.000-07:00

I promise that I won't write a 20 page dissertation on what love is. I'll leave that to philosophers, semantic scientist, poets. Though I may be all of the above at one time or the other I won't be that now. My journey on the water allowed me to realize that I had to travel light. I had to let a lot of things go. In doing that I was offered a greater clarity than I had in the past. What is interesting is that a lot of epic journies happen because of Love. While I was taking my journey I started to see why the Bible states that God is Love. That statement is often made without a context. It appears only twice in the Bible. One of the verses is:

"Whoever is without love does not know God, for God is love." [1 John 4:8 ]

ALLAH is recorded as saying at one point that he loves those that love him. I had enough time to realize what was the thing bothering me that I had to deal with. I had equated my capacity to love with the success or non success of a particular relationship. My capacity to love though is infinite. Those who don't tap into that won't know me. I can't make a person know me. If you don't do what is necessary to know me you can't love me.

While on the sea a wise Queen made Knowledge Born to me that Love is love. It is one's birthrite. It isn't something that you should have to work for. While contemplating that I realized that love is right here. So on that journey I did come upf with a few jewels.

Love detects and manifests beauty. In that Hebrew (not Greek) acronym for God (Gomer Oz Dubar) the principle that is said to stand for beauty, Dubar, etymologically is rooted in perfection. It is beautiful because it is perfect. I am beautiful because of my perfection ie my ability to correct error.

Love is dynamic and not static.

I found a few beautiful things that I was loving on this journey

*Uprocking on the pier with the taino twins Alicia and Alexandro

*Performing poetry at the Blue Parrot open mic and getting that poetry bug back in my life

*Listening to Cuban Jazz on the top deck at midnight

*Rolling up in that sea side joint and getting to play stand up bass with the house band

*Running to Shelter so to get in one hour

All good stuff.

Peace

Sea Shack

2007-04-09T18:42:00.000-07:00

Peace,

The jewel is shelter.

I grew up in single room apartments when little. When we moved to New Haven we graduated to a beautiful rented house that we lived in on the 'other sides of the tracks'. You know..back when you didn't realize that you were growing up in the ghetto. I than saw the science of how my parents were able to plan and move from that point to another part of town where they than became owners of a house.

When I got on the boat one of the things that I resolved was to get that credit right so that I could become a home owner. I owe a lot of my reflections on credit to Daanish Allah and Allah Jihad. Ironically it was while on the boat that I was revealing in the whole notion of non attachment. I have always traveled a lot while growing up. The church we were in caused us to spend weekends and several months during the summer in different states all of the time. I actually enjoyed it. While on the boat I started to see how, though I grew up rooted in one place, maybe I was meant to be a world traveler. I lived in a boat shack and was okay with that.

There is really nothing except the feeling of Freedom when you are moving on the ocean and feeling your boat shift, the wind, new ports of call. It is incredible. When I got back home I started to cut out a lot of my material attachments because frankly, I didn't really need them.

I haven't come to a decision as to exactly if I will get rooted in one spot yet I do know now that I will have to have the capacity to travel.

Peace

Zoot Suit Riot

2007-03-26T06:00:00.000-07:00

Peace,
The jewel is clothing.

Clothing is how you cover yourself up. Traditionally it was done with an eye on the elements, an eye on cultural standards, and an eye on style. I say traditionally cause nowadays a lot of people got it all mixed up. They wear shorts in the winter and fur coats in the summer. I wrote about it in an essay that I wrote entitled “Regal Garments.”:

Clothing historically was first a means to protect one’s physical body against the elements. The functionality of the clothing was in keeping one cool, war, dry, etc… In time we also realized that it was a means of adornment and a means to communicate various concepts and ideas. The marriage of both concepts took hold in most ancient societies. When you examine the TRADITIONAL garb of aboriginal people worldwide you will see that it meets both criteria.

It was interesting not being focused on clothing while on the boat to a ridiculous degree. We were working practically sun up to sun down and we had uniforms. So this is how we related to each other on the daily. There was one (uni) standard (form). It was interesting to see how the passengers also related to those employees.

I had these funky min checkered black and white pants that I had to wear. I swear I was going to remix them, bring them back to New Haven, and start a post 2000 new Zoot suit craze. That might result though in a Zoot suit riot and another Battle of Chavez Ravine

When on shore leave in Chelsea New York I got up with a few Gods. It was amazing. We were all just in 'normal' gear compared to most of the people in Chelsea yet it was definitely a case of us being the piece of steel with magnetic in it. It was hilarious because 'wealthy' guys were working to holla at original women while we would just ask for the time and than ask them to step into a spot for a slice of pizza with them while they were drinking a Tartini. Guess who they rolled with. Clothes aren't necessarily magnetic, the man is.

Peace

Sea Gumbo

2007-03-05T10:33:00.001-08:00

Peace,
The jewel is Food.

Food is basically concentrated solar energy that one intakes to power the body. Some of us get it direct via vegetables and fruits. Others of us get it as it is encased in animal meats. I was working in a kitchen on the high seas. Of course I was going to learn a lot of stuff about food.

First off, what was fresh was that the head cook was a vegetarian so I always got a good meal. Even though the passengers wanted their buttered sea scavengers and deep fried meats I was guaranteed that I was going to have a nutritious meal each and every day. He was a gourmet chef so I had the pleasure of trying some ill vegetarian dishes that I never even thought of. The second chef was muslim so he had some ill halal dishes also without meat. I learned a lot back there.

I already knew the science on sea scavengers/bottom feeders yet working in that kitchen just reinforced it. I mean the cooks had to clean shit off shrimp, soak clams and mussels in bleach water, shuck those damn lobsters, etc. That stuff is just the pork of the sea and if you don’t eat pork yet try to explain away those sea scavengers then you are just shamin.

While traveling up and down the coast I soaked in a lot of the culinary science that the cooks had to offer. It was ill because they didn’t just cook food. As part of their training they had to know the history of food, the cultures that certain dishes arose in, culinary customs, etc.

I learned that along with the colonial expansion of Europe into New England there was a Victorian fascination with China that was going on. Therefore a lot of the dishes that are still served aboard nautical cruises up and down the east coast are mixtures of Chinese food with native nation food. I learned about preparation of using various squashes, corns, beans, bamboo hearts, mandarin oranges, etc

Also, I realized something that should’ve been common sense to recognize. Cooks and drug dealers run in the same circles a lot of times due to the fact that a lot of drugs come from plant foundations. I also learned how to make a lot of foods like ‘those’ such as bhang, cannabutter, and green dragon. It was definitely an experience.

On this one spot down the Hudson river we ran across a Ginseng festival (no lie). It was ill. I learned about the complexity of botanical medicine, the history of the ginseng trade, etc. And had a host of ginseng in various forms and types available to me. I also just got into the habit of chewing mint. Fresh mint is just right. Pick some up instead of that gum.

Keeping your cookies down, learning how to walk tightropes....

2007-02-19T18:34:00.000-08:00

This jewel is Equality.

Equilibrium is a crazy thing. Sea sickness is all about your equilibrium being off. It makes you dizzy, sick to the stomach, unable to focus. Now if your physical equilibrium can being off can mess you up like that imagine what your emotional, mental, social, etc equilibirium being off will do to you. It will kcuf you up that’s what it’ll do. When you mental equilibrium is off you are likely to get physically sick and depressed. When your physical equilibrium is off you are likely to be sluggish in your thinking and making a lot of wrong choices.

Working on the boat you can’t help but to think of balance. You are on a craft rocking back and forth on water, cutting waves, and breezing past the surf. Mentally you want to be on the Middle Path, Golden Path, Middle Pillar. Physically you want to be on rocking a
proper food pyramid , physically sound tone for frame, etc.

Being on the ship made me think of moderation and my own father a lot. He’s in his 80’s, gets around, and is physically/mentally sharp. I notice that he keeps a nice center in terms of emotional, mental and physical extremes. He also does what he needs to do in order to upkeep all of those 3 points. It’s all about not overextending oneself. I had to learn the lesson on the boat because it is a mistake that I had made a lot on land. Over extension will sap your resources without renewal. It will weaken you. It also sets many to take advantage of you where they never develop their own strengths. We want for others what we want for our self yet the proper way to bring this about is to teach them to fish instead of giving up the whole fish reserves.

Being thrown into a whole new environment I was learning how to function. I also observed my whole learning process so that when I returned to the land I could learn it all over again. The environment on the boat was challenging at times. I got bleach burns from the chemicals, I found out that racism was on the down low all over the boat, I craved the sunlight at all times being that my quarters had no natural light.

BTW….if you when you don’t have Equality in your life you end up as a candidate for Iniquity (in-equality). Don’t die in your own iniquity.

After developing the crazy hardness on my hands from cleaning I came across this article.

What I Like in a Man: Sandpaper Hands

By Erica Beeney
November 2006, Volume 146, Issue 5
Esquire
Maybe my bias from growing up in Colorado. One late spring, my friend Dave took me up into the mountains on a road I was never able to find again. We stood on the riverbank and blew up the patched gray raft together. We climbed on, and the world sped up and closed in—nothing but trout-colored water, white spray, and my heart beating in my mouth. Then we hit the rock. I got dumped over the side and lost a fingernail while fighting to shore. My teeth chattered as I blubbered and sucked my blood. Dave knew just what to do. He struck a match on his palm to start a fire. His hands were as rough as sandpaper, hardened by calluses—the kind of hands that could save you.

A smooth hand is nothing to be proud of. Calluses tell a story: a weekend spent repairing fence posts, replacing the oil filter on the Triumph, tacking across the harbor in a hard wind. Calluses are the proof of doing something that was hard enough to do that it made scars. And unlike tans and white teeth, calluses can't be faked. A free climb up the face of El Capitan leaves blisters; watching someone else do it on the Discovery Channel doesn't.

When did we start believing that life wasn't supposed to leave marks? I don't want my man's hands to remind me of my little brother's. I want them to be strong and maybe even a little bit scary. I want them to be the kind of hands you don't say no to. If your hand makes me picture you sweating, I picture sweating with you. (I'm blushing now; a pause as I fan myself gently.) So spit on those palms, rub them together, and get to work. Leave some skin behind on an ax handle. Make your fingers bleed on that guitar you haven't picked up since college. Then grab a girl. You'll have her at the first touch.

Smack me and I'll smack you back

2007-01-17T10:52:00.000-08:00

The Jewel is Justice

I have been in club fights yet a bar fight at an old dock saloon is another thing.
And most muthjumpers out there just don’t have any hand skills. I’ll get to that later
though.

Most time we hear the word ‘justice’ in the context of a criminal being sentenced. If they get the type of punishment that we thought was appropriate then ‘justice’ was served. So we are often only seeing ‘justice’ as a punishment. Justice though is not just a penalty. It is also a reward. It is a measurement on how well you paid attention to your surroundings. Each penalty or reward will not be the same for each person. If my son went and took some money out of my wallet trust, he will get punished. Yet his punishment will be NOTHING compared to the unrelenting ass whooping that I will give an adult that dips in my stash! Being aware of my situation, weighing what I want out of life, and tallying up my resources I resolved on the boat to get the reward out there that had been waiting for me for so long.

Judge not, that ye be not judged.
For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again
St. Matthew 7:1-2

People be taking the ‘you shouldn’t judge anybody to heart.’ (and yes NON-religious people this verse is the source of you saying ‘people shouldn’t judge anybody.’). People judge people all of the time. When you choose which of your friends to ‘hang out with’ you have made a JUDGEMENT CALL. When you decide that you aren’t going to go out on a date with a certain person that is a JUDGEMENT CALL. When you say, I don’t agree with x, y, or z that is a JUDGEMENT CALL. It’s the other part of the verse that people don’t digest. I judge people all of the time..so what. If I don’t like something about you I don’t want you around my son..catch feelings if you have to. And often time when people get upset about the people whom I made judgement calls on they come back to me later cause they had to go through a funked up lesson to find out WHAT I TOLD THEM IN THE FIRST PLACE. Take the second part of the verse,”,,,,,,,,,” It just means that what you call someone out on you’ll be called out on if you get caught doing it. So if you are saying don’t eat pork don’t go and get caught with some bacon in your mouth. So yeah I judge AND I accept that people judge me cause I KNOW what the verdict will be.

And my judgement on some of my shipmates is that they were drunken bastards who just didn’t have any hand skills. Yet they would get into fights. You know the type who always use that tired excuse “you should have my back no matter what.” WTF?? No YOU should use your intelligence and not get into f*cked up situations all of the time. Sometimes YOU are the one who is wrong and you need to take that ‘beating’ so that you will start using your damn brain. Take responsibilities for YOUR actions AND take the penalty.

I also see how port cities are just like the ‘other side of the railroad track.’ All of the ‘outcasts of society’ seemed to make their way down to the docks. I had to constantly remind a lot of the crew who went to drink on land that they didn’t want to become a bad episode of Law and Order. The ‘dregs’ of society up in the bar and here I was with some starry eyed kids who just wanted to get drunk.

As another aside a port city is a trading post. It allows a lot of different types of peoples to come together and interact and barter. It allows for lawful exchange and unlawful exchange. Now at one port I saw the BIGGEST rat that I’ve ever seen. I mean, I’ve been to some parts of NYC where they had ‘fat rats’ who definitely needed to be on Jenny Craig. Yet this rat looked like it was walking up in Starbucks and drinking quarts of mocha, loca, frapalapas. Believe me when I say that it looked like a small dog. The sound it made was like a small pony wheezing (yes…I know what that sounds like…another story).

I mostly kept to myself while on board. I was there for different reasons then the majority of the crew. Sometimes though I would journey with them to shore and relax in a pup. Now those whom grew up in the inner city or are familiar on any level with the general ‘art of war’ know that there are somethings that you automatically do when you enter in an unfamiliar place. You do the knowledge to the exits, you position yourself so that you can see the entrance, you position yourself so that no one can sneak up behind you, you don’t get drunk, etc. When we walked into this particular bar I was like…damn. I mean it would be no thing if I was in there with my boys yet this placed smelled like trouble. What was ‘funny’ though was that the crew was just clueless. The only dude whom trusted under these conditions was the 2nd chef whom was this black muslim dude (Kareem PEACE) whom I rolled with. He was near my age and was also from CT. Most importantly he had common sense. Now amongst the others whom we were rolling with was this one dude from some backwater town in Maine who couldn’t hold his liquor, the metro undercover dude that I talked about in my last post, a confused Spanish lush lady, and a dude from FL who we all didn’t like because he was just damn lazy.

Drunk Maine dude started to try to kick it to some dudette in the bar. Dummy didn’t realize that her boyfriend had just went to the bathroom. From there it was on. All I saw was a bottle crack the back of his head and him being stunned that he was bleeding. Before he got cracked by another me and Kareem were working to move them out of the bar…stupid skcuf wanted to stay and fight. So we were literally in the middle of the two groups; pushing one group out the door while trading blows with the other group. Fortunately the dumb shipmates started to run back to the ship because Kareem and myself were nice yet we didn’t know what else that they had. Knives and chains are so ‘out of style’ and I haven’t yet mastered the art of catching a bullet. They were respecting though the steel arms and puppy dog walk techniques. And I am sure that I performed dentist routines on more then one of them. When we got back to the boat I told them that next time I would let justice be served. Needless to say, they watched their steps in regards to bars from then on in.

Running Away

2007-01-10T09:33:00.000-08:00

Freedom is a road seldom traveled by the multitude.

That’s because people have a messed up view on what freedom is. They ‘think’ that freedom just means that they can do what they want to do outside of rules (standards) and regulations (maintenance routines). That ain’t freedom because half the times they end up just doing what the majority of the society is doing. They ‘think’ they are free yet when you look at their record they end up doing what every one else is doing.

What they are really doing is called caprice. Caprice is an impulsive seemingly unmotivated (having no rational foundation) notion or action. It is unpredictable or sudden change or series of changes. To deal with freedom you have to be a freethinker. This means that one is using reason and rational enquiry. If you are ‘scared’ to have your ideas challenged, get emotional when the Truth is pointed out, or for some reason think you have to ‘go through’ something to understand it then you aren’t a freethinker.

You can’t run away from problems. You can’t ignore issues. That is mental debris that one has to, sooner or later, deal with. So let me be clear…..

Getting on the boat wasn’t freedom. Working through problems and issues was the Freedom. In the context of the 12 jewels Freedom is between Understanding and Justice. You have to comprehend what your issues are in order to free your mental dome. When this is done the PROOF is that you will receive a great reward. If you are receiving penalties guess what..you ain’t dealing with Freedom.

Some want a ‘quick rub on the genii bottle’ solution to all of their woes. They neglect to even consider that a lot of their situations came about through years, months, and days of neglect. So instead of changing their bad habits they just keep getting into a pattern of looking after an elusive ‘quick fix.’

In order to clear up debt they look for fast money (fast money->fast life->the ugly side of life) instead of proper planning. In order to deal with their weight issue they get the latest diet book instead of getting off the fast food and eating the right foods.

A big part of Freedom is just letting go of things that weigh you down. I got to do a lot of that on the seas because frankly there wasn’t that much time to be worrying about things that were at a distance. I also got to learn a lot of things to help with providing physical freedom (i.e. stress free living) to my body.

What up Jenny La La..lol. Jenny was an Inuit from Quebec. She was working on the cruise. At first I entered on the boat with an immense amount of stress locked into my body. Also, when learning how to utilize certain machines on the boat I was locking more stress into my body. Jenny showed me an ill acupressure technique that involved utilizing small pebbles to remove stress from key pressure points on the body. At the same time she reminded me of the pranayama techniques that I had ‘put to the side.’ The boat was the perfect spot to reorient myself with these techniques. The routine allowed me to basically ‘program’ them into my daily operations again. That’s freedom of the physical body.

JoeJoe, was another indigenous brother on the boat. By the way we started our tour in Maine. I was surprised by the amount of aboriginal peoples in Maine. By speaking with them during short landings and Building with those on board I found out that a lot of the Native nations just retreated into the wild where the colonizers were afraid to go. They survived until the present day. In fact I was surprised by the number of islands off the coast of Maine and along the routes that we traveled. It was literally like 1000 islands. JoeJoe is Algonquin. I built with him a lot. He taught me a lot about just general wilderness survival. He showed me which flowers were edible, how one could chew on bark to extract water if one couldn’t find a clean source and he taught me how if you boil poison ivy you could eat it (the toxin is in the oily residue). That’s how one can move free on land.

There were also people on the boat that were in mad denial. There was this one ‘dude’ who was massively “metro”. He was trying to be a lady’s man on the boat. It was quite humorous to watch him try to ‘do his thing.’ Anyway, we were docked one night in NYC on the Chelsea side. Everyone basically went out that night. When we all came back we just sat up in the dining room talking. He went on to state how he was followed by a gay guy from a corner store. He couldn’t understand why the guy picked him to follow and hit on. Then he followed that story by telling us that he bought a watch pair from Times Square. It was a man and woman pair. He then said…and I quote..”I don’t care I’ll wear either one.” Dude you ain’t metrosexual you’re just gay…get over it. Free yourself from that lie, dude. You are not a lady’s man.

Regarding the statue of liberty (Freedom)
The black press championed the French-American project; and African Americans contributed to the pedestal fund, participated in the public celebrations for it’s unveiling in New York City and conducted their own. Blacks were among the immigrants whose first sight of the United States was the Statue of Liberty in New York Harbor. In the early 20th century, African Americans died because of the perverse appropriation of the statue’s symbolism by white racists. They were targeted by and responded to the government’s Liberty bond campaign during World War I.

How many of y’all remember the movies or read 1001 nights and the story of Sinbad the Sailor? It’s about a man finding his way in that world through the freedom of sea voyage.

Our tour took us from north (Maine) to south (FL). Within the 3 months I traveled from Maine to S.C. We were on the Hudson River about a month. When we would finish our week tours during the Hudson River excursions we would dock in NYC and always come by the Statue of Liberty. Coming into NYC during these times was like ‘freedom’ for a lot of the other ship mates who came from ‘small towns.’ I’m like…hey y’all…that’s just caprice. Just like all of those people partying on the Hooters II ( a boat in dock in Martha’s Vineyard) when I came on board during one of our nights off I got to party on that boat. It was a whole host of spoiled rich brats (yeah I said it). They had no clue on how I could have fun and yet still rock a lot of control. It’s because I was free. Not a slave to anything.

Girls gone....

2007-01-02T21:13:00.000-08:00

*The Jewel is Understanding

It is easy to get clarity when there is nothing else to see. I mean I left practically everything behind. I see why those dudes locked up in white padded rooms go ‘crazy’. It’s easy. You have only yourself to deal with and ironically you get used to listening to other things that your own voice sounds foreign. Sometimes you have to put yourself in the position so that you only can focus on self. That is a wise move. It will bring forth an Understanding (Wisdom Knowledge all being Born to Understanding) which is a conclusion, comprehension, insight, a view, an estimate.

It is important to see who you are in the context of the Universe. I am the sun. It doesn’t benefit me if I ‘play’ at being another planet, comet or moon. Once I determine who I am then I know how to relate to every other celestial object in the Universe. Plain and simple man is man, woman is woman, and child is child. You can view people entering into other coordinates and actually manifesting some of the qualities of that coordinate yet in the long term you will see that they don’t internally have those qualities by nature. Something will happen because of playing the wrong position: bitterness, anger, anxiety, boys/girls not knowing what it is to be a man/woman, regret, etc.

Hey Buddy, WTF does this have to do with traveling on the sea??!!! You know what it has EVERYTHING to do with and just cause you can’t SEE it…well…get a clue man get a clue. Let me draw a connection for you.

You were working in a confined area, the dimensions of the ship. Due to your schedule you only get a little while off of the boat. For me this was the environment that I wanted because I wanted to work at the least amount of distractions. I also knew that Understanding comes in time. So I wasn’t expecting an ‘instant revelation’ to hit me. I knew that I had to be the primary initiator of observation of self in order to get the best part of my various thoughts.

Some others sought Understanding through other means. One of these means was chemical stimulation. Let me present the following personal ‘standards’:

*I’m righteous not holy. I myself have indulged in chemical stimulation.

*With that said all chemical stimulation isn’t equal, a cup of coffee isn’t a shot of vodka, weed ain’t heroin, and an antihistamine ain’t oxycontin.

*a lot of chemical stimulation accents aspects of a person that they hide. It is an interesting dynamic to witness. Yes, there is a reason that many works of art is fueled from said stimulation.

With the above said I have never seen as many chemically stimulated women as I saw on the boat. Also, just in my travels across the planet I have been in the presence of said women. Here are my observations (at home and abroad) of said women. (now don’t get mad if you see yourself in here):

Girls Gone Hygh, Tweaked, Drunk, Clear, Elevated and Relaxed

Euforia Aieleen
This is that ecstasy chic. She’s mad open, touchy feely, lookin mad goofy happy. She touchy feely so of course the sex will be enhanced on her end. Here’s the problem though…she’s like this with EVERYBODY. If a chic is all over you like comfortable scarf that’s all Bruce Lee (slang meaning hella cool). Yet when she is smiling all up in the face of the whole party, even that ugly wart laden smelly doorman then it ain’t sexy and damn…she can’t even bring sexy back after that point.

Zona Zombia
This is that crack chic. A rare breed in this day and time. Basically what I have to say about her I wrote about here.

Tina Testy
This is that cocaine, white lady mistress chic. Overtime her whole physical is going to deteriorate from using this stuff. As it is now she always has head colds and is finger checking her nose as if she has boogers or something. When she does stop sniffing to have sex she doesn’t ever want to pause (I’ve heard the same thing about the Road Runner babes (speed chics)). What really skcuf with you is that her eyes bounce around all of the time like ping pong balls and she talks TOO DAMN MUCH. Tina shut the kcuf up..please..now..not later…now..please.

Bebe’ Char
She’s that undead from antiquity. She sips heroin. It may be through little snake bites in her arm or through poisoned clouds. To top it off she drinks that ‘purple’ or ‘lean’ (codine and soda pop) that glazes her whole demeanor. At first you may be tricked into the allure of her dreamy movements then you’ll realize that they are just a hair breath away from a nightmare.

Dusty Darla
She does that hillbilly heroin, Oxycontin. In my experience she is and classifies herself as trailer trash. She’s sucking on Marlboros, thinks the confederate flag is a knitting pattern, and her car smells of stale beer. She’s a rubber band. Her muscles cannot support her frame. At this point all she is good for is decoration for your blanket. Put her over it so that the blanket doesn’t move and go back and enjoy the party.

Indonesia Ahltyme Hygh
That’s Chronic Carla, Mary Jane, Ganja Jewel, etc. We be mad acquainted. This woman is often caught in a dream time walking euphoria, experiencing time dilations, has dreamy eyes, and is making random connections that ends for pleasant conversation. That is if she knows her limit and doesn’t become the star in some paranoid thriller conspiracy flick. She shares on many levels and that sharing can be intimate if she trusted you in the first place to be around her when she entered into that astral space.

Ecchi Ayeesha
Wine Connoisseur. Even if she downs it with impunity. She feels the river of blood in her veins and every tributary that hollers out her elegant felinity. She wraps you in the rush of her tantric scent. That is…if she doesn’t just become Inez.

Inebri Inez
Beer drinker. She’s doing it just to get drunk. That’s it. Nothing more. Nothing less. Oftentimes she just becomes a drunkard and tries to make it sound like a virtue. You’re a drunk Inez; arrogant, loud, nasty, and the furthest thing from attractive…go vomit.

Judith Twilight
This is that sake’ drinker. Each swallow is liquid literary poetry that she whispers back in nighttime conversations. Ain’t no other way to say it. She’s just smooth. Each dip becomes a salsa note. Each glance luna bright.

Satori Sara
She drops xanax in order to escape the ills of the world. She has an ill balance where there is no panic. No confusion. When you have sex you are playing with an angel. Yet the key in all of this is for her to recognize where the xanax has brought her to so that she can go there on her own. If she doesn’t learn this lesson then that key of xanax no longer is the key to Nirvana it is the key to Naraka.

Stay tuned for more of the ‘don’t rock the boat’ series as it continues.

Watch what you're saying, Weigh what you're doing

2006-12-20T11:19:00.000-08:00

The Jewel for the first official post outside of the intro was Knowledge. Now this is Wisdom.

Intelligent conversation. Know what to say and when to say it. I saw that a lot of people are full of porkshit in my travels. Talking ‘gutter’ amongst the educated as though that is reflective of keeping it real. Talking ‘superscientifical’ amongst the common folk as though that makes one ‘look’ intelligent.

I’m that uncommon common man. I can flow into any situation/environment yet still radiate enough shine to stand out. I learned most of that skill from my mom and my pops. It is definitely an acquired skill. When I was younger I was definitely very introverted. As I got older I learned to take the attributes of my introvertedness (yup..made up word…rock it with style) and make them cool. I’m a Black Nerd, Ghetto Griot Geek, Supreme Ultramagnetic Swagger Rocker with a twist of Sake, Suburban Block B-Boy Breakbeat Beatboxer, Comic Chess Cosmic Captain Melanin, The Oreo with the Chocolate Filling, historian, father, lover and friend.

Now, being on the ship one thing that I had to get use to was the movement of water. It was during the second week that I got my first bout of sea sickness. In the kitchen you have to understand that I had to endure 1001 different smells from the cleaning chemicals, to lobster guts, boiling beans, and just the general funk of some of those crew mates who for some reason were scared of their showers.

Now, I was getting used to getting up early in the morning and getting straight to work. At home, I got up around the same time to start the day with my son and myself. The difference was that we got up 6:30am so that we could ease into our day. We would wake up to fresh music, have some tea, go over some affirmations/math exercises, and just watch some fresh stuff on animal planet. Here I had to get up, get the physical dead right, and get up stairs to work.

In the kitchen you have a fresh view of the ocean through the window so it was like visual meditation. I loved it. Not this morning though. We were going through rough seas and..um….my stomach was flipping out. Now, it just isn’t the stomach, it is the whole nervous system of the body. I was like..damn. A hangover never felt like this. I had to go downstairs to ‘relieve’ myself like 5 times during the morning meal. After that Dramamine became my mistress.

In solitude I learned that I needed to get some things done. I needed to get them done because they would become the doorway by which I could continue to elevate and move forward. A quality of Wisdom is making the right choices. Right choices increase room for growth and development. Wrong choices generate stagnation. What was incredible is that I was able to get a lot done on land while I was at sea. I wasn’t distracted so I was able to keep in contact with the right people on land (good lookin’ guys…you know who you are) who kept everything kinetic.

Wisdom is will. After I got rid of the other porkcrap in the mental I was really able to see what MY will was. I then remixed it and said this is what WILL happen. It is just about being ALWAYS conscious that we make things happen and that we have greater control over situations then we give ourselves credit for.

Within the first two weeks I saw many loose their jobs due to their actions. They were all chilling with some of the seven deadly sins. One girl lost her job cause she snuck down into the men’s quarters to get her sex on (lust). One due just kept falling asleep on his watch (sloth). One dude thought that his was the 1st mate instead of the deckhand (pride).

With communication we just don’t rely on what ‘webster’ says. We generate and create language anew everyday. As such we started to make words that were applicable to our common experience. Let me share a few with you.

Lala-put at the end of any woman onboard who was a weed smoker. Ex..Lisa la la. You had to take a drug test to get on the boat yet not STAY on the boat. The women were especially guarded about their use so the code came up for them.

Exclamation-on the real..there were a lot of metro-homothug-dl mofos onboard. They got into mad hissy fits. They acted like a ‘stereotypical woman on her period.’ So we started to say that dudes were on their exclamations.

SARS-Shit Ain’t Right

We had some others. When they come through the mental I’ll drop them.

BTW all communication is emotional. Emotion is the QUALITY of a particular communication. Even if one is ‘emotionless’ or ‘logical’ the quality of that communication is ‘cold’ or ‘detached’. It is wise to deal WITH emotions. Recognize them for what they are. They are indicators of the nature of the relationship between two people, places, things, etc.

Doing the Knowledge AKA being aware of WTF I just got my ass into

2006-12-12T10:50:00.001-08:00

I got a bus ticket from New Haven, CT to Bankgor, Maine. I have never even HEARD of Bankgor, Maine (ain't that in Thailand). I had decided to work on a cruise line as a Galley Stewart for 3 months. I got to the boat (after 9 fcuking hours on a bus), put my clothes in my room and got right to work. I ain't never been on the water for more than a few days. This was brand new to me.

I started to realize that this trip was going to be about focusing on myself. I was so used to being the focus in other people's lives that it was proving difficult to deal with things that I had to do for myself. I set myself up in a situation where the majority of my day would be centered on working thus there was no place for non-essential things.

What was the 1st emanation? What were my 1st thoughts when I was a child that I wanted to bring into my adulthood? I wanted to write. I wanted to go to the moon. I wanted to dig up dinosaur bones and Egyptian mummies under desert suns.

The sun adds on to self with hydrogen adding to hydrogen through nuclear fusion in order to make the heavier elements and planets.

So in order to get back to my first thoughts I took myself on a journey to clear clutter and just make it happen. Thoughts need to be as pure as possible because they are the building blocks that one needs in order to build buildings. If the foundation is flawed and weak your building is like Atlantis; shit is sunk.

At first when I got down in the men’s quarters I was like…L No! Some ole army barracks, all men living in the same communial room type steez. Not for nothing, I wasn’t trying to be around this much male shit and sweat for 3 months. I was elated when I found out that as Galley Steward I had my own room, own television, and own bathroom. If I wanted to shit butt naked in my room during breaks I could (and maybe I did).

Rat Kings are mythological beasts said to arise when a number of rats become intertwined at the tails, and additionally stuck to each other with blood, dirt, and excrement. Consequently, the animals grow together, joined at the tails, which are often broken. Most known "rat king" examples are formed from black rats (Rattus rattus). The only find involving sawah rats (Rattus rattus brevicaudatus) occurred on March 23, 1918, in Bogor on Java, where a rat king of ten young field rats was found.

Yeah I saw some rats, not on the boat, yet that is another story for later.

The firs week was all observation. I was looking at the whole crew whom I was going to be in close quarters with for 3 months. The first day they threw me right in the kitchen to get it moving. Galley Steward handles everything in the kitchen except cooking so that means; dishwashing, cleaning, handling the inventory/ordering of food. It was on. All day everyday. Sunup to sundown.

The Piri Reis Map is a famous premodern world map created by 16th century Ottoman-Turkish admiral and cartographer Piri Reis. The map shows part of the western coasts of Europe and North Africa with reasonable accuracy, and the coast of Brazil is also easily recognizable. Various Atlantic islands including the Azores and Canary Islands are depicted, as is the mythical island of Antillia. The map is noteworthy for its depiction of a southern landmass that is evidence for early awareness of the existence of Antarctica.

Where the L was I going? What the kcuf was I doing? I realized that we would physically be traveling up and down the eastcoast of North America yet it didn’t answer my own questions as they related to me. Even though I knew that his was something that was most beneficial to me and, in the long run, to those around me it didn’t lesson the blow of going away for a season from familiar problems, those whom I still had issues with and those whom I cared for.

I knew WHAT and WHY I was here yet it didn’t make it any easier at first. I told myself that if I could get through the first week it would all be gravy from here on in. Due to my focus and standards I was referred to as the ‘moral compass’ of the crew. See, I didn’t confuse the my reason with being here for everyone else’s. Some actually just made it a damn soap opera on some ‘who’s zooming who’ stuff or why ain’t X talking to me. LOL. I found it humorous. I was here for the gold and mental clarity.

I learned how to let go of some mental debris (1:14, 5:14, 32:40) my first week there. I got the hang of certain mental exercises that would later serve me well to order my planning (1:40). I learned how to put my body on automatic while I removed clutter. Then I would focus again on the body in a sense ‘rebooting’ the body. Stress would melt away. I got the hang at multi-tasking on a grand scale also. I also learned that I couldn’t live without seeing the sunrise over the salty sea or sun set next to the docks

Black Jacks: African American Seamen in the Age of Sail-Among the more intriguing facts that this fascinating book contains is this statistic: by 1803, nearly 20 percent of seamen's jobs were filled by black men, most of them freemen. Historian Jeffrey Bolster, himself a sailor for a decade, covers the story of black sailors from Africa through mid-1800s America. Working as seamen helped blacks support families and helped facilitate communication among widely dispersed people. There were dangers--free blacks could be kidnapped and sold into slavery, and all black sailors were subject to vicious racism. Yet for all the drawbacks, sailing was a profession black men saw as "an occupation of opportunity
Licensed master mariner Bolster (history, Univ. of New Hampshire) writes a descriptively rich, engaging narrative of African American seafarers from the 1740s to the 1860s. He recounts how tens of thousands of African American sailors formed an important sector of the maritime labor force, shaped mariner culture and the identity of free black communities, and linked the Atlantic world of the black diaspora. Both free blacks and slaves found opportunity, dignity, and freedom despite harsh working conditions. They were skippers and captains as well as ordinary and able seamen, pilots, and cooks on merchant ships, warships, whalers, and other coastal and deep-sea vessels. Bolster devotes attention to the construction of race in the interactions among black and white sailors on ship, in port, and in the War of 1812 POW camp of Dartmoor (England) Prison.

I had put my self on the sea. I was going to be successful in my undertaking. Yet even at the beginning point I didn’t Knowledge what I was in for.

Intro

2006-12-06T07:23:00.000-08:00

Peace,

Season for Everything

It was indeed a journey. I knew that I had to remain focused yet I didn't really fully see what I was entering into when I decided to work on a cruise ship for 3 months. I did know that it was somewhere that I needed to be in order to clear my head and get clarity on a lot of issues within my realm.

I have named this whole section of my travel the "The Twelve Jewels of Ishmael". It is in reference to a plus degree within the Nation of Gods and Earths (the 12 Jewels of Islam) and to the Biblical and literary personage of Ishmael (if you don't know who this is in both cases pick up a book or at least read wikipedia). There are twelve jewels given in said degree and I was on the boat for 12 weeks. I correlated each jewel to each week that I was on the boat. I decided to start a whole travelogue blog because I have traveled a bit in comparison to other people whom I know. I thought that it would be good to give a Black Man's perspective. I will be giving other notes about my other travels in the near future.

For me this journey up and down the East coast was the "Atlantic Ocean" (2:11+2). The Atlantic Ocean is the divide by which many original people came to North America during the Middle Passage. In that way it has a bloody history. Yet those who survived said passage also gave birth to those whom were later enlighten to the Knowledge of their self. Traveling over the Atlantic Ocean was only the 1st phase of this journey of mine's. Did they receive more gold? Emphatically no. Yet in time many realized that the gold was in their own self setting and reaching their own goals. Though through this I did generate a surplus of gold in order to finance the next phase of my continued growth and development. This is the travel through the "Indian Ocean"(3:11+2) (going back to school for Radiology Tech i.e. enlightenment) and finally the "Pacific Ocean" (1:11+2) (living abroad for a few years comfortably).

A wise Earth constantly reminded me that I'd be only gone for a season (12 weeks). I was. With seasons things change. I was Old Man Justice (who was a Merchant Sea man by the way) traveling on the sea. Some days the boat was Ra's boat. Other times it was the nail boat.

I hope that you gain some insight and enjoyment of the recollection of my journey. The wise stuff I did, the trouble that I got into at times, the unwise stuff I did, and the just down right silly stuff I found my self in sometimes. Some parts of this are X-Rated so hide the children..lol

The race is not given to the swift

P.S. Though this is not specifically geared toward those whom are in the Nation of Gods and Earths there are sections that are reflective of that way of life. The numerical notations in parenthesis are numeric notations of our curriculum, 120 degrees.