by Ray Jason
It was the silhouette hour. A cayuco came paddling towards me in the deep dusk as I sat with my back against AVENTURA’s mast. The oarsman’s stroke was smooth and strong. There was a child in the back tending the fishing line as her dad rowed.
When they were 20 yards away I realized that it was not a father – it was a grandmother. Even though she was as ancient and weathered as her hand-carved cayuco, she propelled it like a man in the prime of his life. It was a joy to behold.
I motioned them over towards my boat and hustled below for a packet of cookies to give to them. As they nudged up beside my hull, I was amazed by the peaceful dignity of the old woman. Her face was dark and deeply lined, but her eyes flashed like moonlight on the sea. At this close range I could now see the amazing resemblance between her and her grand-daughter.
As they rowed away I noticed the grandmother turn her head to make sure that the young girl was okay. I suspect that as she did so her mind flashed back to when she was that same age – sitting in the stern of a little cayuco admiring the power and grace of HER grandmother as she paddled them across a twilight lagoon.
I turned back to my clipboard and spent a half an hour working up a haiku to celebrate the encounter.
Ancient grandmother –
you still row your cayuco
like the girl within.
This was another sublime episode for me as I drift through my middle years here in the Archipelago of Bliss. These little vignettes feel like such blessings, that I always search for some meaning in them to share with my readers.
Just as I was pondering what message lay hidden in that sweet encounter, a light went on. It was my anchor light that comes on automatically as the sky darkens. I laughed at the overused cliché of a light bulb going on when someone gets a clever idea in a comic strip. And in this case it was doubly humorous – because what it sparked was a meditation on “electricity.”
Some of the over-arching themes that I write about in my essays and that I also get to savor and test in my sea gypsy life, are simplicity, freedom, self-reliance, an easy pace of living and pleasures that are elemental rather than ephemeral.
The impact of that old woman’s noble face and dignified bearing will remain with me for the rest of my life. But how many of the Facebook photos that you find captivating today will you remember next week? The difference is that my experience was direct and immediate whereas the photographic one was indirect and mediated. You did not actually see a goofy cat – you saw a picture of a goofy cat.
Silly Facebook cats are only one strand of a gargantuan electrical web that has ensnared much of humanity. Here is a brief bullet point list of some of the features of modern life which will not function without electricity:
- Televisions
- Computers
- Air conditioners
- Lights
- Smart phones
- ATMs
- Check-out line cash registers
- Air traffic control towers
These are all tied into “The Grid.” And the centralized electrical system is not controlled by everyday people, it is ruled by the wealthy and the powerful – who I gleefully refer to as The Malignant Overlords. And these folks worship the god of profit and ignore the pleas of the people. If you doubt me, just google up what Enron did to their customers in California.
The more you are tied into this electrical matrix, the less likely you are to experience a life that is simple, free, self-reliant, easy-going and elemental. The old woman paddling the cayuco has never been on The Grid and flourishes just fine without it. Likewise, the sea gypsy community is not chained to a centralized power prison. But because we have our own independent solar and wind power on-board, we can also enjoy pleasant creature comforts.
As I sat on the deck in the darkness with my clipboard and its little light, I tried to fathom the message that was woven into the little visit with the grandmother and child. And I believe that it is this.
A person can live a very rich life by savoring the slow and simple pleasures. But the bright, electrical, frenzied spectacles of the real world are often just illusions and phantoms. They seldom offer true joy – and often lead to despair and tragedy – for both individuals and the society.
The secret might be to disconnect as much as possible from almost everything that your culture is telling you to do. If it tells you to watch TV, go to the park and feed the ducks. If it tells you to buy, Buy, BUY, sell some things and give some stuff away. If it tells you the government cares about you, make them prove it.
And then, one fine day, some kind, attentive stranger might recognize that you lead a simple, authentic life and offer YOU some cookies. But even more importantly – what they are really offering is their respect and their admiration.
For more of Ray’s work, please visit:
www.theseagypsyphilosopher.blogspot.com
The simple but beautiful haiku was a perfect
way to end the day.
Thanks again Ray for a few moments of diversion from this faced paced BS-filled life here in La La Land.
I wondered for years if I was making a living or making a dying. Now, well into the so called golden years I realize I forgot to slow down and smell the roses. Much wouda, shouda, couda. Thanks for the brief respite.
Hi UnRe,
Go easy on yourself. I suspect that you have done better and are doing better than you are giving yourself credit for. Onward>
I’m in my mid 50’s now and I’ve been feeling that way a lot more lately.
Its been nagging at me that if I live an average human lifespan of 78, then I have only 25 years left. I don’t want the frustration and constant rushing around and pressure I deal with every day for 14 more years if I only have 25 left!
I wrote a song when I was younger and in a job I REALLY hated– it was called “Wishing 5/7ths of my Life Away”.. that is no way to live when Monday morning I’m already wishing it was Friday afternoon.
“Being responsible and reliable” sure wears you down. But what to do when I’m helping financially to support a mom with advanced dementia, a granddaughter who lives with me and I pay for her private school to keep her out of “transexual studies” at public schools.. etc etc..
If the leftists only knew how truly tired and the smoldering anger and frustration so many millions of us feel– they’d tread a little more lightly lest the dam break.
I suspect many of them feel the same anger, it’s just that they have been molded as to the cause.
You’re doing what your conscience and caring nature tells you to do and while it can wear on you, worse would be the wear and tear of not doing it. I’m 74 and living the simple life I’d always hoped I could one day live. I was fortunate and bailed at 52, still meeting the responsibilities of caring for children and an aged parent, but leaving behind a high-pressure means of earning more, more, more.
Funny enough, I began writing classic 5-7-5 haiku at age 50. I’ve written over 2600 of them now. Mr. J’s above was a fine example of haiku. It’s a fun hobby.
Yesterday’s been lived
Tomorrows are mystery
Today´s what there is
Hi Cold Mountain,
Nice one!
I have a real treat for you. It is an essay entitled THE SOLACE OF HAIKU. I’ll post it for you in a couple of days. It describes my unusual Path to Haiku.
Cinco Siete Cinco
Thanks! I’ll look forward to reading it. I assume you’ve read the work of the great Han Shan from whom I borrowed my pen name. Didn’t write haiku, but he indirectly put me on my path nearly sixty years ago now. Keep writin´!
Thank you for the vignette and reminder that we long for simplicity. Where I am it’s winter and time for hibernating and reading. A book I picked up today mentions a guy named Fred Rebell who I hadn’t heard of before. He sailed an 18 footer from Sydney Au to LA during the depression. Not being too flush, he built his own sextant and his own taffrail log! Now here is the part that made me think of you and the water community….He made his own passport.
It worked until he got to LA-too many bureaucrats I guess. But there it his, he made his own passport.
Warm Regards
Hi Tab,
A very close “friend” is working on a less than authentic vaxx passport that he thinks of as “performance art” if you catch my deep sea drift.
I do. A posssible growth industry unless the TV people just come on one day and say “it’s over, we’re all safe now”
Love these posts always such a great perspective for those of us ensnared in the grid
indeed without that gird the world would be free again to follow a thousand different paths. it will fail, and when it does is when the whole world with humanity included will finally be able to begin recovering from the machine nightmare.. but only then.
Hi Anon,
The concept of “remnant” communities is discussed quite a bit at my Blog. In a nutshell, I ponder the question that I often ask myself of “How do you get Mozart without the Mushroom Cloud?”
Ray, Last night, when I first read this, I tried to go to your blog from my tablet but the Google Chrome police wouldn’t let me. I’ll go there now on Firefox on PC as I’m still looking for part 2 of the Bikini Atoll piece.
Hi B L,
Sorry about the delay. I even told Jim a few days ago that I would soon post it. However, one night about two weeks ago a means of re-structuring the whole work came to me as I was departing a dream. It allows the piece to be not just the main character’s experience in total isolation after the SHTF. Instead a fleet of Tall Ships arrives that had formed an alliance filled with their best students through the years who had awakened to the slow death that is “woke.”Unbeknownst to the Sea Gypsy Tribe creator they had formed a tribe of Tall Ships. How cool would that be??? 🙂 Then we go to work sculpting a sane remnant community.
So go read the second part – knowing that I will re-tool the entire plot.
I feel such kinship with the gang here at TBP, that I look forward to sharing the new version as I create it.