Life of Pi

I went to see Life of Pi with R yesterday, the second time watching it for me. I saw it in Dubai last week, but thought I'd go with R and watch it in Bahrain yesterday. Not sure what he thought of it. It had a fairly profound impact on me the second time. I remember reading the book years ago and not being all that impressed. Just entertained. Then the movie made me think the first time, but the second time I was able to catch some stuff that I missed the first time around. Most meaningful to me was the ending were Pi asks Yann which version of the story he liked better. Yann says "The one with the animals." Pi then says "...and so it is with God." That grabbed me I think mostly because the Christian explanation of life and it's origin etc, is fanciful and hard to believe, but it's the one I prefer. Both explanations - the rational one and the fantastic one - don't answer some fundamental questions and are both horrific and enchanting - just like either story didn't explain why the ship went down in the first place. Why would God allow sin and it's consequences just so that love and relationship could occur for some while the rest perish. Is it worth it? But it still continues to be the better story. Otherwise there is no real love or meaning and we are just an accident and that's just too horrible to believe in, even if it is true. The tiger kept Pi alive because he "kept him alert because of his fear, and keeping him alive gave him purpose." I find that also profound. He chose to keep the tiger alive and it gave him a sense of purpose and fear, which kept him alive. Without a belief in God we loose our sense of purpose and fear, and therefore our will to live. Killing the tiger will ultimately kill ourselves. ...even if the tiger is not real, it's necessary ...and it's necessary that we believe in him. Wow. I've got a lot to do today and I don't want to do any of it. Must register Maddy for swimming. Must register my phone sim card. Need to get taxes sorted out. Need to get paperwork for home loan. Purpose. I have some purpose for this week. Glad it's a fairly light week. Longing to be able to write a novel like the Life of Pi. That's a purpose I can appreciate!

Ruminating in Dubai

Sitting in the Vienna Cafe at the JW Marriott in Dubai enjoying a latte and OJ, waiting for my breakfast, while Josh Garrels from my phone is feeding my head. Here for Boeing recurrent. Got in yesterday traveling from Bahrain in Business on Emirates. N and M are in the US. Yesterday was a lazy day. Very tired. Tried to sleep, surfed the channels, finally went to sleep late afternoon. Woke up around 6:30pm. Did some exercise in the gym, then went down to the pub and had two beers and a quesadilla. Watched a little live music, which was fantastic! Very talented Filipino band. Felt good. Went to bed and surfed the TV again. Settled again on music videos. Watched a series of videos from an artist known as Rhianna. Probably very famous. Music and video editing was superb. It's been so long since I've enjoyed good art. A bit suggestive ...okay, very suggestive, but that is to be expected. It's interesting to see that now as a 43 year old man. It doesn't have the power over me that it used to. I was living yesterday as a silent observer of my own self. The human experience is so fascinating. I was observing how it felt to exercise, have two beers, watch sports, listen to good live music, or music videos. Just tasting life, quietly, modestly. No hookers, no excessive drinking, no drugs, just appreciation of the little things. Enjoying the effect of the latte and good oatmeal this morning. Working on some fruit. Enjoying my iTunes. Thinking, pondering... Don't want to read the bible and disturb my reverie. It invariably makes me mad. Thinking about the forces at work in the world. The push, pull, pressure, resistance, retaliation, revolution, greed, corruption, gluttony, fear, piety, restlessness, hunger, jealousy, flattery, angst, love, lust. Tight clothes, high heels, hunger, bare shoulders - trading sex, or even just the thought of it, for the apparition of love, or, ...at least a better income. Or enormous guts like scarlet letters revealing years of emptiness, want and indiscretion. Patience and moderation now seem to be a thing of the past. Want want want, take take take, use use use. Thinly veiled manipulation reverberates on every billboard, tv screen, and magazine- but nobody cares anymore. Denial is a powerful anesthetic. Pretending you are loved and wanted is better than the alternative... I observe all this from my perch, as I watch life go by like endless traffic on a busy highway. I've seen the cycle too many times, and have let it bite me more than once. Want repels love, which only feeds the want. Love can only be really found when want is gone. You can only get it when you don't need it - because it happens only when you are full enough to give. It is a profound paradox, much like greatness found only in service, "the first will be last and the last will be first." I'm at the edge of what I consider to be a fairly powerful choice. Well, the choice has already been made, really, but the final act is yet to come. Still reversible at this point. I'm about to leave a perfectly good job that pays me a quarter of a million dollars annually to do very easy work that gives me plenty of time with the family. I'm trading all this in for a salary of less than 50K, more work, less vacation, and less time at home - just to be back in the U.S. with family and friends, and to break the spell of affluence. I'm willingly checking back into the mainstream. Back to struggle, and want. Back to "never enough." All tempered by freedom from debt, ownership of property and half a mill in the nest egg, ...but nevertheless much less than what it could have been if I would have stayed. What an experience these last 5 years have been! I'm full of memories and a new perspective on, ...everything. Much like what good science fiction does to pull you out of your life to see the same issues in a different context - so you can see it clearly for what it is - removed from the fog of familiarity. I immersed myself in a radically different world view these last 5 years. The context was different, but the longer I was here, the more familiarity I felt. My upbringing was heavily influenced by the worldview of my family, and I've found that the same piety, pride, and dogma induced blindness occurs here. The apparition of certainty dulls the senses in any world-view and closes the mind, it seems. I've found another paradox, which is - allowing oneself to risk letting go of "certainty," opens the mind to truth. Seeing life the way it is, instead of the way you want to, is, ...powerful! Truth can only be know when you can admit that you don't know it... Wow. Very Krishnamurti, I know. This has been nice. I guess I started this more than a few hours ago. Ruminating in a coffee shop, listening to music. I can see myself doing this a lot in the next phase of my life. Time now to prepare for the job at hand. Recurrent training of the Boeing 737. I should look over the limitations and procedures. First the bathroom...

Flying East While Going West

We are climbing out of Jeddah at 3000 feet per minute, carbon fiber blades are spinning at 33,000 rpm hungrily consuming 200 pounds of fossil fuel every minute while it pulls gallons of air through itself to propel us forward. I glance at the center fuel tank quantity gage. It shows 1200 lbs. Engines are burning just under 6 thousand pounds an hour each now. Let's see, that should be about 6 minutes before I have to turn the center tank pumps off. I start the stopwatch, just to see if my prediction is accurate. Wow, I must be bored. I look outside and see single dots of lights dispersed randomly in mountain valleys. What would it be like to live there - far away from the city. What do those people think about? What motivates them? What makes them laugh or cry? What are they afraid of? What are they passionate about? How do they view the world? I will miss this place, when I leave. Even after 5 years I love to hear the prayer call. It's still exotic. I love to rehash inside jokes with Muslim men just by a word or a knowing smile, that reminds us both of previous conversations. We ask about our kids by name. We remember each others' upcoming vacation plans. We remember what makes the other laugh, despite the chasm of world view that supposedly separates us. I wave at the mechanic that comes up to greet us as we pull the airplane into it's parking spot. He points at his wedding ring and then lifts up two fingers with a smile reminding me of a previous time he was goading me to get a second wife. "Why shouldn't my wife get a second husband?" I had asked him. He had tried to explain to me how women's needs were different, etc. - all with obvious tongue in cheek. I will miss these guys, this land full of mystery and complexity. I will miss sitting on the floor with eight other guys eating out of the same plate of kabsa with our hands. I will miss walking by the carpeted rooms with shoes scattered around the doorway and looking in to see dispatchers and baggage handlers, pilots and managers all standing in a row, shoulder to shoulder facing west with bare feet and humble submission to their God.

Desecration

Thinking. Thinking about life. The colors of the sky during evening and morning. The coolness of morning air on my face. The miracle of flight. Technology and nature united, working together to perform a miracle. I'm thinking about all the hatred. All these people hating each other because of different explanations for the origin of time. Nobody is willing to say, "I don't know." But this fascinating life with all it's wonders and complexity is desecrated by their vitriol.