India- Losing My Religion(s)

Holy Cow

After my trip to India, a place rife with professional thieves, beggars, con artists, and skinny cows, a vegetarian is only as lactose intolerant as his options.The happy go locals  will eat anything with wings except airplanes, and everything with legs except tables.

Cultural Anthropologist Margaret Mead said "It is easier to change your religion than your diet". After further  study, you don't have to change your diet or your religion to live in America, just keep an open mind and an open mouth.

It took Picasso 10 years to paint like Rafael , and a life time to paint like a child. Children are, after all,  completely gullible: they will believe anything and, more than that, will eat anything. I am eating like a child again!!!  It's not as important what I eat as how I eat-in my case frequently (6-7 small portions per day) with the 24/ always on, always  available cruise ship food options.

The Apprentice- "Everything in life is luck." Donald Trump

Although I am a Math Athiest, The hardest arithmetic I've had to  master is the one which enables me  to count my blessings. It requires a long apprenticeship (Think Gladwell's 10,000 Hours of practice rule or 10 years)  Cruising around the world, provides  a legitimate short cut for taking things with gratitude instead of for granted. 

The experiences at sea turned my can’t into cans and leveraged my Adventures (which was nothing more than bad planning) into serendipity a thousand unseen helping hands of  allies, synchronicity, and the Michelangelo effect.   

Coffee Is For Closers -"You call yourself a salesman, you son of a bitch?" Blake (Alec Baldwin) in Glengarry Glen Ross

I met a guy in Starbucks  this year, who said "What a gift... to be able to travel like that, selling art and get paid  too."  Ic ertainly am getting rewarded for my progress if not my ability. After all, the Raindance works because they never stop dancing-and i never stop selling.

Travel---It really is the best kind of gift, because you can't buy it, you can't find it, People have to give it to you.

I've met a lot of people who believed in me. My obsession with traveling is in fact my own  private religion, where the bulk of my  spirit has been actually invested.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.

 An Escape to reality, when all you care about is here, this is a good place to be.The point here is that the journey is essentially a journey to nowhere. Yet the awe of just doing it, is what moves me forward.

You can't even say "Sorry I'm late" because "That's ok. Time doesn't exist at sea."
Cruising is when laziness and slack finds respectability. Losing My Religion is a song about obsession, not lose of faith. I'm thinking of Nietzsche: 'Be careful, lest in casting out your d/evil you exorcise the best thing in you.

There’s an old Chinese saying that I just love, and I believe it is so true. It goes like this: “The temptation to quit will be greatest just before you are about to succeed.”

Being at sea is more about procrastination.Procrastination has a gotten  bad reputation. I don’t feel guilty sailing around the world  times. It’s part of my  "process"! 

The work wedo while weprocrastinate is probably the work we should be doing for the rest of our life. Laziness is not the religion of the 21st century, fear is. I am not  afraid to procrastinate, to put off living on land. Still getting a charge out of these "mini retirements" -It's time to take another cruise!

I know that it's time for a cool change

Now that my life is so prearranged

I know that it's time for a cool change

Well I was born in the sign of water

And it's there that I feel my best

The albatross and the whales they are my brothers

There's lots of those friendly people

And they're showing me ways to go

And I never want to lose their inspiration

Some thoughts while biking around Goa, India....

ZAMM-Zen and the Art of High Maintenance

There seem to be cows around everywhere I go. I am not sure if they have a charmed life, the ppl don't seem to worship them. It is, however,  revered as the source of food and symbol of life and may never be killed.  They seem to be walking neglected around  Goa city streets, living on garbage from the gutters.


Sacred cows may make the best hamburgers, but I don't eat my friends. As for butter versus margarine, I trust cows more than chemists. As for milk and cheese- they are an utter delight.


Rules of the road when driving a motorcycle-
The horn is your friend. Use it often, use it well.Lanes don’t exist. Do not pass. Wear a Helmet! Cows have the right of way.