During transit, today is like yesterday. Scenery doesn’t change and as we race towards the equator, the weather remains hot, dry and sunny. The hours of the day are starting to be equal. When I get to Jarvis, I am going to look at the GPS receiver and record the hours between sunrise and sunset. I may even take a picture and post it here. We will be camping on the equator for five days. You learn about these things in school but it is more interesting seeing it for yourself. I am fortunate to have the opportunity to physically observe it. It would be interesting to stay at the Topic of Cancer or Tropic of Capricorn on equinox days to see the same time duration as if I were on the equator. It is trivial and probably childish to some, but it is my pragmatic ways that has either enhanced or hindered me throughout life that makes me want to do this.
I have gypsy blood in me so maybe that is why this job is fitting despite some of the hardships I have talked about in past blogs. The gypsy blood comes from growing up as a GI Brat traveling and living in different places in the Pacific. When I returned home from the Far East, I would have friendly disagreements or debates with the geography teacher in my stateside non-DoD local public school. The cultural classes I had in DoD dependents schools taught me to respect and learn from other people’s cultures, along with living in a bi-racial and bilingual household with two different distinct cultures as I was growing up. I’m still doing that now!
I never make a comparison when I am overseas or boast on how lucky I am to be an American. I already know that and see no need to be arrogant about it. There is pride of course but I never considered other people’s culture to be inferior or superior to ours. I always learn from them and if you read some of the blogs dating back to January, I wrote on what I learned from my wife’s family in Samoa. This is where most people from my country get into trouble when they are overseas. An old adage, “when in Rome, do what the Romans do.”
I was physically exhausted today and no amount of coffee could get my engine running. After work, I hit the rack for a brief nap that turned into a three hour sleep where I missed dinner. The scales tell me not to worry about it!
This is something that many ashore in support who never set foot on a moving NOAA ship have a misconception about. I may finish an eight hour shift but in reality I am still at work physically and must be preapred mentally for a callback if an emergency arises. I do not pull into the driveway, wind down and enjoy dinner with the family. I do not have weekends available to go out or catch a matinee on Saturday afternoons. Instead, when I am sailing, evenings with the family consist of measured phone calls talking about activities after I return or catching up on what they did. Providing the telephones work through the satellite and can hold up five minutes or not sound like you are underwater. You cannot treat this profession like an eight hour a day or a 40 hour a week job. There are those in positions of power who ardently believe you can and try to impose guidelines that are derived from corporate mentality based on some untested business theories taught in schools. If there is dissent to their myopic concepts, I have heard comments such as “if you don’t like it, then quit your job” if I state an opinion to the contrary.
Or you see the makeup of a policy board that implements rules to those who sail and see that not a single member has sailing experience in their resume. Well, we now have a credibility issue. Life and working on a ship is a different realm. What is perceived to function in a university thesis may not work here. Or believing that policies imposed in a corporate cubicle environment will somehow symmetrically succeed in what is literally a unique environment.
I may not be armed with an MBA or in a position to face a board to defend a PhD thesis, but many of these theories or guidelines simply will not work. I learned this from the university of hard knocks and got to where I am today by starting from the bottom. I respect and appreciate those who work in a category that is considered less than mine. I never believed that they are a lesser mate for a second as they are functional integral and significant components in keeping this ship afloat and moving.
I vividly recall the days from the Navy when I was a non-rate (non Petty Officer) assigned menial tasks with working parties, cleaning the heads or swabbing the decks. Even to this day when I see a deck crewmember swab the deck, I either walk along the edges of the deck and bulkhead or find a different route to my destination.
Many things you learn from the University of Hard Knocks never leave you. However, if it is not on some piece of paper it means nothing in today’s structured professional environment that allows very little room for ingenuity or innovation. I feel biology telling me to start planning for retirement in eight years.
It’s time to hit the rack. Goodnight from the open seas of the South Pacific.
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