OFF THE GRID

Every now and then we all need some time alone. Some time with just you and your thoughts. No cell phone, no tablet, no internet, just you and nature. Anyone who works in the social services sector knows that in any given day your day can go from 0-160 and stay there till the end of the day. All that being said, I had to unplug from the matrix. So I packed my hiking bag (Western Pack) laced up my Puma’s and took off on my off the grid adventure.

Instead of taking the usual path to the top of Monks Hill I decided to take a path we used to take as children growing up in Falmouth. What I didn’t know was that this area was now over grown and literally a jungle to get through, but determined as I was I pressed forward. I left home at 5:05 and by 5:15 I had scaled a fence and pushed through more stinny nectle^ than I ever had in my life. By 5:25 I had climbed a huge boulder and made my way through the rest of the bushes. As I started my climb up the hill I realized that my chest was heaving and hoeing like I was running from the police. Looking back and seeing the sun setting off to the west caused me to take a moment to take in the sights and snap a few pics. I picked up the trail to the plateau but again decided to go in a direction that I hadn’t taken in a long time. I ducked under a few fallen trees and was making progress. A turtle dove caught my eye off to the right of the path and I paused for a few to enjoy nature at its best. I’ve never really been one for bird watching but just standing there watching this creature in its element was calming.

I made a path up the side of a cliff and stumbled upon a few tombstones. I figured this must have been the burial ground I had heard so much about as a child but couldn’t recall if I had seen it before or not. I snapped a few pictures of these soldiers as they slept and kept on moving. It was a bit ironic coming across some “jumby”* beads after passing through a graveyard not moments earlier.

Ten minutes later and I had arrived at my destination. Monks Hill. From this spot I could see all of Falmouth, Cobbs Cross, and parts of English Harbour and Picadilly. Falmouth Harbor lay before me with its entire splendor. A few boats were docked in the harbor while some sailed around no doubt to the enjoyment of those aboard.

My sunlight was fading so I struck my tent. It took me all of five minutes. I laid out the contents of my bag; sleeping bag, two bottles water, two cups yogurt, a cheese sandwich, sweat pants, hoodie, video camera, pen, paper and David and Goliath by Malcolm Gladwell.

Now that I had “unpacked”, I proceeded to watch the sunset. As I sat there thinking of nothing and everything at the same time, two thoughts came to mind; this is probably how the scene from the Bible looked when Jesus was tempted by the devil having him look down on the city below him and offering it to him. My next thought was “I must be out my mind”. I sat enjoying the ambiance until the sun was way behind the hills. I brought no flashlight so had to resort to my camera light as my reading light.
I dozed in and out of sleep for the next four hours, waking up every four to eight minutes to check the time. Guess your body needs time to adjust when you’re sleeping in the middle of nowhere. By 1 am I was up and about. Took a bathroom break and stayed outside for a bit enjoying the midnight breeze and embracing my solitude. I lay with my head outside the tent staring up at the moon hiding behind the cloud filled skies. Wondering how the universe was conspiring for and against me in its grand scheme of things. After a bit of light reading to set me back to sleep, I began to feel like I was right where I should be.

I was surprised that the sun wasn’t out in its entire splendor by 5:00AM. If the sun wasn’t up then why should I be? After all it was Sunday on an island, so I took another forty winks until 6:30. I sat on the cliff facing east and watched a herd of goats making their way down the hillside. I was so caught up in their movements that I didn’t realize the sun was rising. I caught it as it left the horizon in all its golden yellow majesty. The warmth I felt on the outside did not compare to that on the inside. I had been thinking of this adventure for quite a while now. It was good to finally have it as something I did rather than something I wanted to do.

^stinny nectle is the island equivalent to poison iv.
*jumby is the island equivalent of zombies.

Change A Millennial Perspective

The one thing that excites me about being a millennial is the same thing that scares me. That is…change. The concept in itself is not a new one but has been around from creation or evolution depending on your outlook on life (I believe in the former) but the speed at which it occurs or seems to be occurring is both frightening and exciting. Though still a child while my parents were coming to age (obviously) the world seemed to have taken a slower pace in the way things were orchestrated. Presently though before you can construct a proper tweet or instagram upload, the stoplight is changing (#firstworldtechnology problems). It all appears to be happening so quickly that before you have grasped the concept of the tipping point Malcolm Gladwell is coming up with something new …Elite Institution Cognitive Disorder…..) At the same time before you can finish your coffee in the morning Dr. Oz is telling you why coffee is bad for you and why the pants you’re wearing will reduce your chance of having children, or why ginger is the new super fruit but two weeks ago it was garlic and the week before that kale… all before walking out your front door.

What intrigues me though is how all this ties into our jobs and how we make a living. As fast as you land a job after graduating (fast here being relative as for some persons 9 months may be pretty quick while 9 days seems like eternity for others), you see the headlines flashing “10 ways to increase your productivity at work”. Before you have a name plate or have established your place in the proverbial food chain, you’re already being bombarded with ways to improve before having even set a standard. For those (self included) who have started the journey and making the “almighty dollar” (could be mightier if you ask me) you begin asking yourself; what am I doing? How can I do it better? Should I do it better? How long before I’m promoted? And most importantly why do we do things the same way just because that’s the way we met them being done and no one ever asked the question why?

For my generation, being stuck between a younger generation that is changing at the speed of light and behind a generation just waiting to retire is by all means intellectual and motivational purgatory. I speak not of the developing world as I imagine their plight to be much different than ours in the Caribbean. I do speak of being raised in an era where pen and pencil were the way of life and human interaction took place without middlemen (i.e. laptops, tablets, smart phones etc.). Here I had the distinct impression that this was going to be the way of life until the end of life. But all this changed so suddenly it’s as if you woke up using ios6 not realizing ios7 has been launched and already running for 24 hrs while you took a 1 hr nap. Now you’re plugged into the matrix trying to learn the basics. But we do what we must cause ours is a generation of thrust. We will and must go forward at any cost. Though we have come to enjoy the peace and tranquility of our forefather’s way of life, the current demand for change keeps us motivated. As your boss will accept nothing short of blood for not seeing that BBM was vastly becoming antiquated, so will they accept nothing less than constant innovation. Whether it’s in the way algebra is taught or mosquitoes are caught (those handheld zappers pack a mean punch) what they thrive on is what we must provide, and today that thing is change.

Hopefully by then pigs will actually be able to fly and we will have a chance to say like generations before us, we did it! Not for us, but for you.

Caged Lion

For some people they’re 401k might keep them up at night or the prospect of retirement might scare them into cold sweat and panic attacks but for me it’s the opposite. The here and now scares me to the extent where I feel like the neck tie I wear to work every day is choking the creativity out of me. Maybe it’s my innate nature trying to tell me something. Maybe it’s the lack of intuition to turn my ideas into creative unique realities that I can immerse myself into for hours on end before coming back to reality. Or maybe it’s a lack of infrastructure in the island where I presently reside. Whatever the issue may be I sometimes feel like my purpose is not being fulfilled. Wanting to learn more and ensuring a better quality of life in the long run lead me to university to pursue a tertiary education. Hands down it was a great escape from reality for me and I would do it again on any given day. But now I find myself feening for a change of environment, scenery, and overall experience. I now know how those lions in the zoo in Port of Spain feel behind that 16inch think glass. The saying goes “it’s a jungle out there” but have we ever stopped to think that some people are born to be wild (no pun intended). For some the open plains are their fountain of youth. It is what keeps them up at night with the wheels of creativity going a hundred miles down the high way of dreams heading to the promise land where dreams become realities and passions become pay checks. To add perspective to my wandering thoughts I’ll relay a story from “What the dog saw” by Malcolm Gladwell. Gladwell wrote about an executive who had a position of notable mention in a company of high esteem who quit in order to pursue a career as a writer. Equipped with only the experienced garnered from a few creative writing classes in college, he sets off on a whirl win adventure to pursue an ideal that was far removed from his area of expertise. If one were to only see the beginning of this story and the successful end it would seem like a walk in the park. However Gladwell goes deeper into the processes that lead to a best seller and reveals writing routine that was rigid and involved numerous trips to Haiti to explore plot points for a work of art that seemed to change ever so often. What may have seemed like an instant hit was a labor of love, time and experience but it was a decision that some may have thought two, three or four times about. Mention was also made of two famous artists, one who peaked early in life and the other was a late bloomer. Both have their names etched in the walls of history despite the fact that their journeys were as different as could be. Needless to say for some its an instant hit, while for others it’s a painful process but doing what we loving and loving what we do is the main goal. At the end of the day I have to ask myself, “Self, are you a caged lion or a wandering elephant?”

Life's work

Earlier last week I was listening to an afternoon program on the radio and heard the presenter ask the question, what is a career? The options given included; A. your life’s work, B. A part time job and two other incorrect answers. The answer clearly was option A. The phrase life’s work stuck a nerve when I began to think about my life’s work. Pondering what would be the end result of my years of toil and labor made me both hopeful yet sorrowful. Ideally I am in the prime of my life. I have energy, enthusiasm, and drive just to name a few. But one must ask of himself at the end of everyday, did I really make a difference in anyone’s life today while being gainfully employed. Did I make any positive contribution to my life other than drawing closer to my next pay cheque? Did I DO anything worthwhile? This point hit home for I plan not to be one of those individuals who are only as good as their last pay stub. The reality is that it happens to the best of us no matter how good our intentions are. To keep this post short and to the sweet I will end with the old proverb that goes something like this:

For want of a nail the shoe was lost.
For want of a shoe the horse was lost.
For want of a horse the rider was lost.
For want of a rider the battle was lost.
For want of a battle the kingdom was lost.
And all for the want of a horseshoe nail.

The question I ask is this, what will be lost for the want of a job? Will it be your childhood dream, your relationships, your health, your pride etc. all for the want of a pay cheque!

Malcolm Gladwell in his book Outliers says the following “Hardwork is a prison sentence only if it does not have meaning. Once it does, it becomes the kind of thing that makes you grab your wife around the waist and dance a jig”.

Why some people succeed

Malcolm Gladwell presents his ideas on the concept of success and how each individual is responsible for his or her success.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jh9ax4QvzoQ&NR=1