Ruach

It used to be, not all that long ago really, that the majority of folks engaged in boating knew what they were doing.  At least the basics. These days, not so much.

There are a lot of boats out there, and although they all have owners fewer and fewer are owned by boaters.  One of the causes of this is that all it takes to own a boat is money.  There’s no requirement, and even a dwindling expectation, that when you buy that new and very expensive toy you actually have some experience or training.  The reality is just about anyone can buy a boat, get it launched and motor, or sail, away. 

Actually, it’s a little more difficult to sail vs. motor boating, what with all those ropes and poles, and huge pieces of cloth.  And although they look pretty from shore and so do tend to boost the tourism economy, sailboats go so slow it sometimes seems like it takes forever to get someplace (which is, by the way, the point).  Not much appeal there for the gold chains and Budweiser crowd.  But we do get our own, special brand, of idiots.

Most folks new to boating can get the knack of a power boat right off, it’s a lot like a car. The steering wheel is generally on the wrong side, or sometimes in the middle, but that’s just an annoyance.  As a bonus, you can actually (legally) drink a beer as you tool out of the harbor. 

Libation (or just getting plain stinking drunk) is a big part of boating, motor or sail, but I suppose that’s nothing new.  I have a rule;  If you are going to take the helm you cannot have been drinking.  Even one.  Most of that is for saftey.  A small part is just me, as in “why would you want to be drunk and at the helm on a boat, on the water, on a glorious day”? And what day on a boat on the water is not glorious, a gift?

What I really care about is when peoples actions put themselves or their crew, or other vessels, into jeopardy.  Boating is fraught with opportunities to do so.  It used to be you learned about those pitfalls and how to avoid them as you grew up  – on the water. 

Granted, not everyone has or will have the opportunity to have a youth experiencing such a grand, but limited, resource.  And they should not be excluded to the favor of the favored.  So, what are we to do?  Recently there has been a move to require “boater education” for skippers.  That’s a good thing.  Unfortunately it’s still a little basic, and sometimes hokey. 

But it will get better.  It needs to.

Keeping crew and passengers safe needs to be a priority.  Part of that involves my training and skills.  Part of it involves training others on board.  I’m sadly remiss in that later aspect. Tricia, my wife and regular companion on the boat, would probably have a hard time even turning the ship around were I incapacitated or missing. Finding port and getting the boat back in is, I’m afraid, beyond her current ability.  That needs to change.  It has to be a priority.  First thing this Spring.  Maybe we could start with some chart work even sooner.

A couple of weeks ago  I ordered some CD’s from Amazon.com.  Darn convenient, that Amazon.com.

Down at the yacht club we were having an “Italian Night”.  The CD’s were/are intended for background music.  The kind of stuff that you hear, but don’t… not really, but sort of, it’s there.  I’ll also use them on the boat.  I like  “Italian” music, particularly the American kind.

What I got was unexpected. 

There’s this 50’s version of “Italian Love Songs”.  Takes me right back to when I was a kid in Salem. We lived in the Italian neighborhood.  Right next to the (really friggin) rich kids neighborhood.  I had some good friends from both of those neighborhoods.  Good guys.  A lot like me actually.  And a lot like my best friend ever, Frankie Romano. Back then none of us were smart enough to recognize there were two neighborhoods, it just seemed like we were all the same.

In the rental district right next to Chestnut street my folks rented an apartment from Connie Ingimi.  Italian was all the thing back then, not just in the neighborhood, but all over the country.  I heard a lot of pop Italian back then.  And that’s not a bad thing, not a bad thing at all.

One of the other CD’s was Dean Martin singing Italian Love songs.  Geeze that one really hit home.  Great stuff. Even my 27 year old daughter loves it. (when the heck did I get a 27 year old daughter? Seems like yesterday I was roaming around the old neighborhood with Frankie)

Then there was the more “modern” stuff.  A disc by Andrea Bocelli and, for some reason, a recording by a trumpet player named Chris Botti.  I guess I bought the Botti disc because it was suggested, by Amazon, or more precisely, by a computer program developed by Amazon.  Darn convenient, that Amazon.com.  And why was it suggested?  Well… it is titled “Italia“.  For anyone younger that me reading this you will probably laugh and say, well duh!  But you must cut me some slack here.  In my lifetime… in the past 10 years really… this was unthinkable.  Science fiction.  The computer is anticipating  my wants.  Incredible.  (yeah, I know… not really) 

Anyway.  The Botti disc is the pick of the litter.  Smooth jazz trumpet sounds.  I just love it.  Cannot wait to sit at the mooring, watching the sun go down, relaxing, listening, consumed. Oh, and it has the most beautiful song ever written.  Yeah, the Ave Maria, by Schubert.  I don’t care what religion you tie yourself to, it just doesn’t get better than that. 

Sometimes you get lucky.  When you do you might as well enjoy it.

As I was growing up, my Father taught me that a discussion without dissent is a monologue.  And who really wants to talk to himself?  We never left the dinner table without something to think about.  We never left the dinner table empty.  “Satiated” had, an has, a different meaning for me than it did for the rest of the kids on the block.

And what was it that we argued about?  Everything, anything.  Nothing was taboo.  Dinner was a feast of the mind (and sometimes,  if we were really lucky, the belly) .  Challenge everything, listen to all sides, morf your opinions as you discuss, taking and giving from the others, and come away enriched, satisfied, satiated.

Weird, huh?  Not really.  Think about it.  Wherever people get together there’s a good argument waiting to erupt.  And what is an argument but a good discussion ~ with passion.  The problem (I could say the problem today, but come on, who would I be tring to kid is that a lot of folks don’t morf. 

Some, really most, people have no concept, no picture in their brain that indicates a discussion should be anything but a battle.  I’m right and so you must be wrong!

Such a grand shame to waste an opportunity… 

To grow. 

To come up with something better that what you were thinking, just a moment ago…