Oct 17.2009 - At Sea

DKP : 20 years ago today the Loma Prieta Earthquake gave me one more chance. I was just starting my adult life and I was determined not to let it come to an early end at 5:04pm that day that the Bay Bridge collapsed and the San Andreas fault let off just a bit more pressure in it's own young life.

I changed from this experience... how could I not? It was a tremendous change, as was the South America Crossing, as is this trip from Europe to America... a route taken by many an immigrant willing to accept risk over the predictable.

I realize every day how we make this same choice about our lives. After South America I discovered that I had become dead in ways... certain ways that only being at sea, on the move, discovering the NEW, could remedy. I have been "moving" ever since I came home from that 51 day, at sea adventure.

Being at sea, opens my mind to reflecting on concepts... like the concept of "safety." What is it exactly? It used to mean putting in multiple decades of ones life to a company that would, then in turn, take care of it's loyal workers for the rest of their days. We know live in a time where this is a rarety that feels more like a myth.

Relying on a corporate entity for your future or job "safety" is really nothing more than putting your power in the hands of the few... the few members of the Board of Directors, the few Executives, the few managers, most of which no longer start from the ground up and therefore never experience the jobs that they have ultimate control over.

Of course if we accept postions within other peoples companies, we must take full responsibility for the rules, or lack thereof, as they are put into play. However, the rules of the company job are changing and the players can either choose to become conscious about the changes or to become victims to it.

This is primarily why I opted, almost without too much consideration, to become my own business owner and operator. I didn't want to be a vicitim... if factors such as the marketplace, or increasing competition or changes in trends occurred, I could move quickly on my own power to meet those challenges. I would not have to accept the change in corporate culture because of a changing of the faceless guard that never experienced my trenches that built the throne on which they sit.

I guess I choose to be more connected to my own destiny. I accept responsibility for my own safety, my own funding of my own life... this to me is also true freedom.