I'm Getting to Know ME!

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Years ago, while visiting St. John's, Newfoundland, I talked a local fisherman into taking me out in his small fishing boat in the early morning. While he went about his business, I enjoyed the boat ride and the salty air, and helped out where possible. Just prior to our returning to port late in the afternoon, a dense fog crept in and totally enveloped us. As I stood in the small wheel house and peered around, I could see nothing through the window but the low-lying cloud of dark grey mist. I did remember that we were quite a distance from the St. John's harbour. The skipper said it was time to head back to port and we changed direction. I looked and listened for some sort of aids to navigation or navigational aids...a clanging buoy bell, a fog horn, anything; a GPS, a compass, something! The only aid I could find was a road map of Newfoundland that must have been pinned to the bulkhead years ago!

After motoring for an hour or more in the dense fog, I finally asked the old salt, "Skipper, how do you know your position?" He looked at me sympathetically, took another draw on his pipe and said, "I just knows boy, I just knows." He knew, but did not know how he knew.

At first I found this strange and thought he must navigate from habit or intuition. Somehow, he had a sense of direction. I know that without the minimum of a compass, in fog I end up going around in circles. Then I remembered that other animals travel through the forest, homing pigeons find their way to their nest, whales and sharks navigate the oceans. Even bees, gathering honey far from home, can find their way back to the beehive. Hence, if they can do it why not us? Perhaps the elderly fisherman had found a way to sense the magnet field, after all it does penetrate our bodies and bones, and used it, without knowing he was doing so, to navigate his small fishing boat into port.

We know there are far more senses than the five we usually discuss. The classical senses are sight, sound, taste, smell and touch. But we have all had the experience of saying to someone, 'What's the matter, tell me. What's going on with you'. They might not have said anything but we sense something is happening and we are able to read the signs.

Some people do have special gifts such as Synesthesia where one  sensory or cognitive pathway leads to a second sensory or cognitive pathway. I must admit that when I read  late at night I know when it is time to lay down the book...all the letters start turning blue! I wonder then if growing into adults and depending so much on technology, somehow dulls our vast network of the senses. 

Back in the late 60's Dr. Alexander Lowen wrote a book entitled The Betrayal of the Body. He described it as the process of depersonalization and goes on to say, "If it (depersonalization) continues, the person loses not only the feeling of identity but also his conscious awareness of identity." And he continues, "To know who one is, an individual must be aware of what he feels."

I must admit that I do not practice Zen or Yoga but I do attempt to find my own way to awareness. It may not be as good as the traditional stuff, but it is something I try to do as I go along, and not just practice at a particular time of day or night. After all I am just an amateur octogenarian who is not content just to be alive, but wishes to be WIDE AWAKE as well.

HAPPY HOLIDAYS AND A MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL.

And that's Dick's View of the World this Week

P.S. - Dear Readers: I am off on an adventure the next couple of weeks. Might not be able to publish a blog. But I shall return.