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In the Land of Fear, the Life Long
Disoriented are terrorized by Fearosaurus Rex. They feed their dreams
to this predator three times a day. Fearosaurus Rex grows stronger, and
their dreams disappear. He digests their dreams and eliminates them
leaving little piles of regrets.
Regrets are the only residues left from all their dreams. The Life Long
Disoriented must watch where they walk in the Land of Fear because there
are so many regrets that they can step in.
I live in the Land of Possibility, and I can walk wherever I want,
because there are no regrets in my field of dreams. Fearosaurus Rex
never visits the Land of Possibility. He never comes here, because I
won’t feed him my dreams. Pickings are easier in the Land of Fear. The
Life Long Disoriented hand over their dreams on a silver platter, and
Fearosaurus Rex grows fat without a fight. He doesn’t want to pay me a
visit, because he won’t get near my dreams. Instead of a bite, he will
get a fight, and he will go home hungry. I won’t let Fearosaurus Rex
steal my dreams. I won’t let him leave a pile of regrets on the
landscape of my life.
Copyright © 2013
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Carnival is a
visually compelling experience. Tens of thousands of people march
through the streets in surreal costumes creating enough memories to last
two lifetimes. Carnival is impossible to explain with just words.
Although words help, it must be seen to be understood.
Carnival speaks the language of the mind. It's all
about powerful images full of stunning colors burning themselves into
your memory. If glitter is good, then carnival must be the best thing
that ever happened on planet earth, because it's full of glitter and
glitz..
The costume in the above picture is more than twenty
feet tall and at least twenty-five feet wide. Costume designers must
limit the size of their regalia so it clears overhead electrical cables
as revelers dance in the streets.
The skull and bones theme of this design is indelibly imprinted in my
memory. I will be able to recall it to my dying day. This monster of
the mind doesn't frighten me, but it's the kind of thing that nightmares
are made of in children.
Monsters of the mind aren't your friend when you're offshore fighting
for survival in stormy seas. In all my years at sea, I never had to
deal with mental monsters, because I'm careful about what I allow into
my mind. I've learned to carefully manage potential monsters. I don't
put anything into my mind that could come back to haunt me while I am at
sea.
A good example of this is a movie called The
Perfect Storm. I didn't watch the movie, because I didn't want to
have those images in my consciousness. Dozens of people have told me
they could never go to sea after watching that movie. Just looking at a
boat brings images of The Perfect Storm into their mind. They
visualize giant killer waves sweeping over their vessel and fear keeps
them immobilized on land where they feel safe.
It would have been hard to sail around the world if I had a storm phobia
blowing through the corridors of my mind. I've only been in a couple of
storms with winds in excess of forty knots, and I never experienced
fear, because I didn't have any mental monsters blowing the winds out of
proportion.
When the wind comes up, and the seas become unruly, and a storm starts
to take its toll on the crew, it's the storm of thoughts that causes
problems. You can usually deal with the wind and waves without too much
difficulty. But mounting exhaustion aggravates and augments waves of
fear, and if fear takes control, a manageable problem can degenerate
into something frankly dangerous. I can't speak for other people, but
for me there's no question that when I'm exhausted in the middle of a
storm, I don't want to have images of the perfect storm flashing in my
mind. Those images could become mental monsters that compromise my
judgment, and put my ship and crew at unnecessary risk.
What I put in my mind is important, because I am the
captain of Exit Only, and my crew trusts me and depends on my judgment.
That means I should never do anything that could compromise my judgment
under duress. I never allow things in my mind that could become a
mental monster during a storm at sea.
I sailed around the world for eleven years on Exit Only, and I never
found any sea monsters or monster seas rising up to haunt me. Although
I'll happily look at carnival monsters by the dozens, there's no room
for The Perfect Storm in my memory banks. When the wind is
blowing fifty knots, you'll not find the perfect storm howling in my
mind.
Life is good.
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