The sun is the center of it all. The energy that gives everything life, the birthplace of spirituality, and is shared and loved by every living thing on this earth.
It’s been over a week since I’ve seen the sun, felt it touch my face, or warm Splendid’s decks.
The wind is gently blowing from the North West. The horizontal sheets of rain, violent wind, angry waves, and black clouds are finally to the North.
When I first started my career in Hollywood I was taken under the wing of a great man, Max Youngstein. Max had produced over 1000 studio pictures, he was the retired executive VP of United Artists, and a close friend. He was old and passed away just 5 years after he entered my life. He was one of the last “heavy weights” of the old Hollywood.
Max was my teacher and mentor if you will. He stumbled into my life after watching my student film “Quiet Winter” and immediately started going out of his way opening doors for me. Why would such an important man do this for me? I’m nobody. I asked him why one day, He replied, “Alex, there are two kinds of people in Hollywood. People on their way up, and people on their way down. If you want to be successful, make it your business to surround yourself with people on the way up”. He had a noble and gentile way about him.
Every time I met him he would ask me the same question, “Do you get it”? ‘Get what I asked’, he just shook his head in despair. This went on for years. It drove me crazy.
Max was growing old and I had become busy with my career. I hadn’t seen him for a long while and invited him to meet me for lunch at a restaurant in Studio City one day. He was a big man with a firm handshake and white hair all over his face and less on his head. When he arrived at my table he asked “do you get it yet? With a smile and force of habit I almost answered ‘Get what Max’…, but it dawned on me, actually I did get it. I understood my environment. I read the trades (Hollywood reporter & variety) every day, I understood the players, and what made Hollywood “tick”. I understood how to survive and what I must do to prosper and further my career. Ultimately I decided this wasn’t my path but that is story for another day.
Life on the sea is the same, I get it!
My question to you today is, do you get it?
With the absence of television, radio, video games, phones, fax’s, cars, alcohol, amusement parks, restaurants, bills, work, law, tax, police, fines, court, war, terrorists, rape, murder, national security, over draft charges, racism, health care, sickness, cancer, death, guns, news, interest rates, inflation, us…, them, and all that other LOUD $H!T penetrating every second of every day you could see more clearly.
Why do we allow all these distractions to keep us from seeing the truth?
How much money do we need to need to have a little peace?
Food for thought. Perspective is everything, don’t let yours be clouded by unimportant noise. Just turn it off.
For the past week I haven’t even been listening to music, just the rain and wind. When I need to occupy my mind I fix something that needs fixing, clean, cook, read, or write. I’ve been reorganizing splendid and throwing bags and bags of useless things away.
It’s good to see the sun, white clouds, and blue sky once again.
At what point in our history did we become so detached from nature?
My phone ran out of minutes 4, or 5 days ago. It doesn’t ring often, but by just not working has been a comfort. 5 days of heavy rain has washed some more useless things from my soul and shed even more light into dark spaces. For the first time on Splendid I’ve become as close to nature as I had once been Namaste, it feels great!
Without discomfort, how can we know comfort? Living in a “climate controlled” environment is not natural and detaches us from our lives, and life itself. We were meant to be cold, wet, hot, and sick, and well. We were meant to have fevers and not take drugs for them. We were meant to have time, peace, Love,freedom, darkness, and sunshine. In fact it is our right as living beings of this earth!
Without time to think we will never learn the language of the world, find peace, truth, or see our path.
MAKE TIME!
I’m in Panama city tonight (Monday) getting Alternators fixed and getting a few other things. It’s sunny and nice :)
Sail far and live slowly.
– Alex
Amen bro.
“For I know the plans I have for you” says the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you,
plans to give you hope and a future….”
Jeremiah 29:11
I just did a search for Max and he has a wikipedia page:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Max_E._Youngstein
I want a wikipedia page after I pass away?
Dancingfeet, thats quite the passage, what comes after the ….?
Alex, it’s good to have you back. You surely have peace within yourself, a time where things just seem to click. Yes your right in so many ways, As a child I grew in Boyscouts and became one with nature, Even in the Navy Seals I was one, your so right, when you speak of control envirments. We were placed on earth to unnite with earth, live right in the middle of all that surounds us. Life has pulled me away from that in many ways, But I must say I’ve directed my family slowly back to nature. Our wonderful son Sawyer will turn 4 on Nov. 1st. He will see “Foxy’s” where his mother and I named him, while she was 5 months pregant. I feel it’s only right to know your path and with that said, we’ll be heading toward the BVI and Sawyer will be on our 45′ cat. She will be our new home, A lot of work has been put into this, Family ties have been broken up, normal life styles have caused us to forget why we went to the BVI in the first place. Sawyer has loved water from day one, It has taking me 4 years to plan this changed live style, My wife still is questionable on the this ideal, but I’ve promised to my family, that if they give me one year and they still “Don’t get it” then I’ll go back to this way of living. Yes, Alex, the sun is a wonderful thing, it lifts up the day in ways that money can’t touch. Nature, we all were meant to be in tune with her and our Lord. I hope our paths will cross someday, For your life style has drawn me back to my true love, the “Sun, water, wind, sand on my feet, may we all seek out our own life, and find a peace within ourselves that money can’t buy. Once again Alex, it’s great to have you back, your words lead me to a place of rest, Live happy, live free, but most of all LIVE……
rguffy,
I hope your year goes well for your family and everyoine else understands. I didnt realize you finally got a boat, good for you and good luck on your trip.
Great verse Dancing Feet. Jesus asks us over and over to simplify our lives. “Sell everything(figuratively and/or literally) give it to the poor and follow me”. By following Him, He wants us to Love our neighbor as ourself and to love Him with all our might. Sounds like a whole lot of loving going on! Alex, you are my neighbor and I love you as myself. You have been a joy to read and listen to. You are on this planet Bluesphere for a reason. Peace brother.
Spottydogs,
Why sell everything and follow “jesus” though? I dont think giving up one institution for another is the point, Freedom, is the point. I believe in God, and what “God” means to me is probably something very differant then what it means to you and believe that is okay. I also believe that religon divides men where spirituality unites them. We must be ever so careful to respect every mans beliefe. Our “spiritual” beliefs should be as unique to us as our fingerprint. I hope noone takes offense.
Lets talk openly and respectfully.
and on a lighter note remember,
The sun is a mass of incandescent gas,
A gigantic nuclear furnace,
Where hydrogen is built into helium,
At a temperature of millions of degrees.
The sun is hot,
The sun is not,
A place where we could live,
But here on Earth there’d be no life,
Without the light it gives.
We need its light,
We need its heat,
The sunlight that we see,
The sunlight comes from our own suns,
Atomic energy.
The sun is a mass of incandescent gas,
A gigantic nuclear furnace,
Where hydrogen is built into helium,
At a temperature of millions of degrees.
The sun is hot,
The sun is so hot that
[ Find more Lyrics on mp3lyrics.org/inL ]
everything on it is a gas,
Aluminum, copper, iron, and many others,
The sun is large,
If the sun were hollow a million
earths would fit inside,
And yet,
It is only a middle sized star.
The sun is far away,
About 93 million miles away!
And thats why it looks so small,
But even when its out of sight,
The sun shines night and day.
We need its light,
We need its heat,
The sunlight that we see,
The sunlight comes from our own suns,
Atomic energy.
Scientists have found that the sun,
Is a huge atom smashing machine,
The heat and light of the sun are caused,
By the nuclear reactions between,
Hydrogen, nitrogen, carbon and helium.
The sun is a mass of incandescent gas,
A gigantic nuclear furnace,
Where hydrogen is built into helium,
At a temperature of millions of degrees.
The sun, ladies and gentlemen!
They Might Be Giants
Great post Alex. We were just talking about that. I’m not a religious man, but I’m Spiritual. I’ve checked out a lot of religions on my path and settled on “knowing” that God is another name for the sun, moon and universe that surrounds and is a part of all that we are. We could have named it Joe, but God got the vote at the time I guess.
All of the religions that I’ve studied had the same goals, live in peace and harmony and treat people, animals, and all creatures of the earth the way you want to be treated. It all boils down to that. It’s a simple philosophy. Real simple.
So I stager through this life living that way. Some people don’t agree, some do. Pretty normal and creates good conversation between adults. We all believe what we want to and that makes for a unique planet. I love this place we call earth.
Sharing the sea is an amazing adventure and when we are all alone with your thoughts, it doesn’t matter how we pray, meditate, dance, sing or whatever we choose to do to communicate our dreams with the Great Spirit, I have a feeling we are all talking to the same creator, whatever that is. So this means no one offends anyone. Hmmm.
So I continue to live freely, love freely and give freely. It does all come back in the most magical ways.
This is a great life. You have a great site. Over the years, I’ve seen some amazing things happen here and I think you need to take all these posts, since the beginning and put ’em in a book. Volume 1. There’s ways to get this stuff published on demand now and so, no stock, if you choose to go paper book, or do it as an e-book and set it up with PayLoadz.com and just let it take care of itself. Another stream of feeding the kitty. It would be good to have it all in one place without clicking back in time. Just a thought.
In any case, nice talking with you the other day and I’ll be taking care of business the first of next week. Also thanks for opening up this “Spiritual” can of worms. It will be nice to see the upcoming posts. We are a diverse people us humans and here you go… Cool.
Capt. Paul
s/v Panacea
No offense taken buddy.
I love this website :)I just want it to unite people of the same dreams, no mater who they call God. Just got back to Splendid, it’s hard to be away for a night :)
Alex, Have you heard from your old friend Darrin? Man you guys were so close… What happened? Will he be joining you again someday….It’s just that, if you looked at your web site over the past year, you and he was together and man the work he did, WOW. Just wondering. Have a good day, I hope your feeling better.
Darren is still in the states He’s planning to go to cruising after the hurricane season. I spoke to him a few weeks ago.