Groggy Morning

It is early, just after 6:00AM ship time (it could be 5:00AM local time by we never seem to be in sync when not in port).  The sun is still below the horizon and the sky is just beginning to show the barest hint of pink.  Venus, Mars and the waning moon are in a long line high across the sky.  I am on Deck 9 watching the window of the dining room for when the coffee appears.   It seems to be a bit late today. 

I had intended to write a blog post last night but once again my cabin was the only quiet place.  Quiet is normally quite nice but as often happens, the soft roll of the ship lulled me to sleep.  I was out by 9:00PM.  I slept for nine hours.  I had a long an involved dream about being married to the this very well off older man who treated me very kindly and who I adored, but later found out was an army general responsible for a horrible genocide half-way around the world. 

I may want to reconsider my habit of falling asleep to the documentaries they stream on the ship's TV.

This morning I don't feel rested.  I feel groggy.  I had hoped to share a post about one of the personal insights that has been brought to light by this journey, but I'm only coming up with the realization that having a cabin without a window seems to have truly messed with my sleep patterns.  Even if I choose to stay in bed, I have generally always awakened with the sun.  Waking to an alarm to find my eyes opening to near total darkness is just not something I've managed to get used to.

These wonderful slowly brightening mornings on deck though?  These I could keep. 

Sunset

I am having an evening of frustration.  Right now I want nothing more than to be sitting on one of the upper decks enjoying the cooler evening air while writing in my journal but...

...the pool has just been repainted and so most of the upper deck is rather fumalicious right now and while it might give me a bit of a buzz, it does not make my lungs happy. 
...Deck 8 had students playing music on their laptops; no quiet there.
...Deck 7 had a talent show rehearsal going on portside and the smokers are out on starboard.

So I'm back in my cabin, in the chilly over AC'd air feeling rather grumpy. 

Earlier in the evening however I did enjoy a rather lovely sunset while eating dinner on Deck 9.  This was a good moment.  The air was warm and humid but not oppressive.  For whatever reason the early dinner crowd was smaller than usual so it was rather peaceful.  I'm trying to re-manifest the sense of calm and peace I felt while watching the sun go down over the sea (something which truly, I don't think I'll ever tire of watching) so I'll at least go to bed feeling a little less annoyed.

Mornings are the only peaceful time aboard ship when we are at sea, so my goal is to rise early and do my writing before breakfast.  Good night!

NOTE:  I think I may have put the incorrect date of our Panama Canal Transit on yesterday's post.  We the canal at about 8AM local time on Thursday, December 3rd. 
 

Stepping Out of My Life

Traveling...

I have not updated my blog as often as I'd hoped I would on this journey.  This is in part due to time constraints.  When in port I am busy experiencing the new country that I am in and when the ship is in transit my time is filled with classes, reading and catching up on homework.  But, and I think that this is more the issue, I am also having a very difficult time trying to distill the sights, sounds, tastes, scents and experiences of these past two and half months into the right words.  I have had an overwhelming amount of new experiences and I've no idea how to share most of them. 

But (and there is always a but) while I am having difficulty trying to share the experiences I've had outside of myself I am beginning to develop an understanding of how these experiences have changed me.  The experience of stepping out of one's well established life for three months is not one many of us are granted.  Before my departure the prospect of doing this did fill me with a certain amount of anxiety but I am beginning to see it for opportunity of experience and perspective that it has provided me.

At home in Portland I am known as many things; Joie from Dark Follies, Joie the dance teacher, Joie the organizer, Joie the musician, Joie the artist, etc.  When I arrived here on this ship I wasn't Joie the anything, I was just...Joie.  At first I admit that I found myself a bit uncomfortable with this.  I felt as though I didn't have a framework within which I could present myself to this new world.  I felt a little adrift.  But after a few weeks passed I began to find  it to be rather liberating.  I could just be me without any expectation of who I was known as in the community because, like everyone else here, I was now a part of a brand new community that was not yet developed.  We were all starting at a new place.

Now, this doesn't mean I suddenly found myself in the position of reinventing myself.  I am still me with all of my personal history and the baggage that brings, but in finding myself in situation where there were no outside labels or expectations, I was able to experience a re-exploration of myself which has led to a rediscovery of who I am and what is important to me. There are parts of me that I have long neglected that have resurfaced and parts of myself that I was holding on to simply because I felt the are part of what I was expected to be.   I have often thought about taking an extended period of solitude to do just this sort of personal inventory, but there is a benefit I think to experiencing this with people around that provides a sort of mirror that I would not have were I to do this sort of thing in isolation. 

In the coming days of our crossing of the Caribbean and the Panama Canal I hope to find the time to share some of the personal discoveries I have made.  I have a bit of a fear that this could come off as self-indulgent, new-agey, naval gazing but it's my blog and I'll blog what I want to...right?

Stay tuned...

The Panama Canal

I was just informed that you can watch the World Odyssey go through the Panama Canal on December 2nd. 

The Panama Canal has live webcams at several locations. You can visit:

http://www.coolpanama.com/panama-webcams.html. 

The World Odyssey will enter from the Atlantic side (Gatun locks) in the morning around 8:00am and leave the Canal late in the afternoon (Miraflores Locks) on December 2.

You can bet that I'll be on deck as much as possible that day as this is one of those once in a lifetime sort of events.  I've no idea where the cameras are but you may catch a glimpse of me if you are watching!

Being far away...

There have been stories on the ship of students receiving notice that family pets have died.  Some have found out relatives are ill or that a friend has suffered a tragedy.  Some received the news late because family and friends forgot that they did not have access to Facebook or that their phones don't work out here.  So they get an email, two, three days, a week too late.

The hardest part, aside from the communication issues, is how helpless you feel   2,000, 5,000, 12,000 miles from family or friends and five days from land and regular communication.  You can do nothing but worry, hope and pray. 

Tonight I'm staring up at a fattening moon and I am worried for a friend who has suffered yet another setback in his healing. 

"Hey, Mr. or Ms. Moon? Since you are going to see my friend long before I will, can you let him know I'm thinking of him?  Will you shine on him and pass along the message that out here in the vastness of the ocean there are people on this ship that he doesn't even know wishing him well?"

Thank you Moon.  Thank you so very, very much. 

Some good news?

I have six more days before I am on land and have access to a wider range of news sites.  Right now what little I am able to see from the United States is full of hate directed at Muslims, governors (including the one in my home state apparently) seeking to ban refugees and citizens calling for ethnic/religious identity cards.  I have seen stories of threats to mosques.  A fiend on the ship has shared that his neighbor's father was beaten because "looks like an Arab."  I fear for friends of mine who are of the Muslim faith or who are from the Middle East. 

One thing I have learned on this journey is how, despite the rhetoric our politicians and government spews forth, most of the world is willing to give Americans a chance on an individual basis.  They know from personal experience that what a government says it not always the same as what its people believe. I fear though, that with the racist and bigoted rhetoric that is pouring forth from out country, with no counter voice seeming to be raised against it, that this will change. 

Please, someone tell me that at least on the local level, that there are people speaking out against these proposed actions. I hope that those who disagree with this are speaking out and that they are doing so beyond the boundaries of social media.  We need a public face of tolerance and not one of hatred. 


 

Tycho Brahe

There was a man who went to the king and said he wanted to find the meaning of the universe.  He asked the king to provide him with an observatory in which he might watch the sky and seek the meaning of the universe.  The king, who also wanted to know such things, granted his request.

Twenty five years passed and the king, having had no word from the man, sent a delegation to inquire if he had yet found the meaning of the universe.

When the delegation arrived they found the man gazing at the sky.  The asked him what he was doing.

He replied that he was measuring the distance between the stars.

The delegation asked him why he was measuring them.

He replied that he had spent the past twenty five years measuring the distance between the stars and writing them all down.  In fact over these twenty five years he'd accumulated 99 books full of these measurements.

The delegation asked him what he was going to do with all of these measurements.

He replied that he was working on volume 100. 

The delegation asked him why he was doing this.

He replied that he was seeking the meaning of the universe.

The delegation asked him if he'd found it.

He replied, "No, I haven't and I don't expect that I will, but one day some one else will seek the meaning of the universe and I will have saved them 25 years of work."

------

The story is a folktale of a sort about a man named Tycho Brahe.  While much of the story may be a fabrication, Tycho Brahe did indeed spend years measuring the movement of celestial bodies and the tables of Tycho's measurements are real.  The measurements he took and the precision with which he made them set a new standard for scientific accuracy.  His observations are considered to have played a key role in the scientific revolution to come. 

Tonight I am working on a paper on water resources around the world.  I am reading a lot about water pollution, lack of access to clean drinking water, water shortages, droughts and privatization of water resources. 

When I think of sustainability and the huge task ahead of us in creating a sustainable world I often encounter feelings of hopelessness and the research I am doing is not alleviating this feeling.  Then I came across this little tale and I thought to myself about how even the small steps we each take today can help to bring things a bit closer to being possible for the next generation; doing the work we are still laying the foundation upon with a sustainable world may be built.  We may not ever see the final result of our work, but without someone beginning, the final outcome can never possibly be achieved. 

In this way the story rings very true.