Tail you for 3 minutes, 5 meters off your bumper before giving you a speeding ticket. A Washington State Troopers approach to serving his community.

“You fucking asshole” My response to a young jock who bullied Kel and I in his oversized pickup truck in the Grouse mountain car park. He drove towards us the wrong way up the narrow carpark at speed, skid to a stop, and then sat there laughing with his mate waiting for us to move out of his way.

Keli and I are just back home in Vancouver following a week long roadtrip in the States – LONG being the operative word! It was really great week of catching up with old friends (Andrea and Hardy, Mark and Claire Dowds), and forming a new friendship with Tom and Caroline Crawford, Hardy’s parents. We also met with the yacht broker selling the Beneteau Idylle in San Francisco and took a look at our No.2 boat Mirage – we were delighted with the design of the boat and the layout, and are waiting for a little more information about the boat in Rhode Island before making a move. We both feel very excited and relieved.

While we were away we watched the second US Presidential debate, in which John McCain made his “walk quietly, and carry a big stick” comment, and it stuck with me, agitating, during the rest of the week. On top of that we had been pulled over for speeding on the way through Washington, and I had my first experience of the American school of policing – tail your victim just off their bumper for 2-4 minutes before you put on your lights and sirens and pull them over. I can’t imagine how this is designed to do anything other than intimidate the member of the public that you are paid to serve, it was quite disturbing.

As this rolled around my brain during the 25 hour drive back from Riverside to Vancouver I remembered the incident in the car park at Grouse mountain, and started to distil a thought about the role of violence in my life. I’m not troubled by the words themselves, although I appreciate that not everyone chooses to formulate sentences in the way that I do, I am convinced that isolated words in themselves hold little moral or ethical value. It’s in an analysis of the use of the words that their impact can be found, rather than counting their letters. What’s important, and it really is important to me, is the use of words and their intent.

And that’s exactly why I am troubled. Troubled by myself, by McCain, by the training of police officers. As I unpacked the three examples I saw that at the root of each interaction was the belief that violence, or the threat of violence, is an appropriate and effective method for achieving what you want. This is of course not an original thought, and I apologise if you’ve already read Walter Wink or sat at the feet of Dr Higgins, but it’s also not something that I have found a practical solution to in my life and that bugs me. A solution for both the violence that I experience as well as that which I perpetuate.

There can be a subtlety to the way that violence and it’s redemptive properties is introduced too. The Christian narrative that I was brought up with said that it took the violent execution of one man to defeat evil in the world (redemptive violence). The same Sunday School lessons also taught me that in order for the children of the bible to inherit a new home they first had to kill everyone that currently occupied the land (God-ordained genocide). And of course in the recent wars in Iraq and Afghanistan pre-emptive violence and the military invasion of sovereign nations that had not declared war on any other nations was accepted as a necessary strategy to achieve ‘good’. In fact the Bush administration frequently used religious terminology to describe their actions, such as the ‘axis of evil’.

The problem with these violence narratives, Christian or civil, is that of who sets the standards for right and wrong, good and evil? The leader of the free world, as both McCain and Obama declared themselves, is self-appointed by one of the least equitable societies on earth. The UK’s so called evolved democracy was last month declared the worst place for children to grow up in throughout the EU. And ‘God’s’ plan for the Middle East is a redemptive violence narrative. As a result of the construction of the ‘peace’ wall Palestinians are being denied access to fresh water in the region, less than 8% of the total available. It is estimated that many will die due to lack of fresh water, never mind the direct attacks of the Israeli military. The UK and US Governments will say very little about this because the Israelis are buying weapons built in their countries. War is a very profitable enterprise.

So anyway, back to me…

I think my challenge for this lifetime is to diffuse the violence I encounter by employing creativity. That’s the problem with violence as a doctrine. Violence is by definition destructive, and un-creative. That’s my big problem with the traditional Christian narrative of atonement – an infinitely creative God had to resort to a destructive (un-creative) solution. It smacks of a very human approach to problem-solving, and of our insatiable need to be right and pronounce others wrong. Paul Tillich, a German theologian, imagined God as the ground of all being, and that humanity and all creation existed ‘in’ and ‘on’ the ground of all being. For the creator to do violence to the created was for the creator to damage itself – and in his view this was not possible.

Speaking of Faith

This week Krista Tippett’s book Speaking of Faith has also really got me thinking about the variety of narrative styles in the bible, poetry, prose, metaphor; and challenged a more literalist or ‘scientific’ approach to the text as failing to fully understand the power and mystery of the text itself. Both are worth a read if you think I’m nuts (you may well think I’m nuts after you’ve read them, and that’s fine).

For me the crux of the matter is my belief that humanity is called to be stewards of creation, the planet and all that is in it. To act violently is to damage creation, and to choose violence when dealing with other humans is to rob them of dignity. To deny our own humanity, the solidarity of the human condition. It strikes me that Christ always moved to restore dignity in individuals, to preserve creation.

Anyhow, before I descend into waffle I have decided that there are little solutions that I will employ to suppress my violent reflexes in future, and to neutralise the violent actions of others that I encounter.

1. When greeted by another spotty college kid who acting out of fear of his minuscule penis feels the need to bully me with his pick-up truck I shall: (a) get out of my vehicle calmly to neutral the size differential and show my own profound security in my substantial lunch box – it’s a Thundercats one that you can buy on eBay. (b) approach his extension and simply ask if he is lost, or indeed cannot recall the finer details of the Highway Code. I will feel suitably self-righteous and empowered, and shall graciously return to my vehicle and move around him without the need to drop an F-bomb, or feel like I was beaten-up (This perhaps needs more work to remove any smugness, but it’s a start).

2. At the moment that I realise that I am being tailed by a police officer who thinks he has reason to write my name down I will pull over to the side of the road and stop the car. I will cooperate politely, but also ask for his name and officer number so that I can give his manager some feedback about his performance if I feel it is below par. This dude is here to serve me, not the other way round. And if he doesn’t understand that (a) I’m an amazing driver, and (b) it’s hard to convert kilometres to miles per hour off the top of my head, and (c) that 77 in a 60 is normal where I come from; then he needs to get a passport and travel more – less than 10% of Americans have a passport you know.

3. The global war thing is a little more tricky. I can certainly not vote for either John McCain or Barack Obama (who himself said some stuff about international diplomacy that was alarming), but I’m not sure that’s exactly an ‘action’. So today I will commit to joining Amnesty International, and to attempt in very modest ways to learn about geo-politics so that I can take practical actions for global non-violence where possible. A little wanky I agree, but I’m not sure that telling a US immigration officer that I’m here to overthrow the violent regime of which he is an instrument on the border crossing in Langley is going to get me far in a quest for world peace and non-violence. Russell Brand tried that one before and got sent home immediately – or was it that he had heroin in his arse, I can never remember…

A little photo of Grouse mountain for luck – the irony being that I’d just spend a couple of hours getting all one-with-nature before I lost my rag. That hippy stuff is for weeds anyhow…

The madness of Canadians.. this is for fun

Our destination today is Riverside, California, where our fine friends Andrea and Hardy live. We’re both really looking forward to our annual catch up with them, and our first introduction to their one year old son Mahlon.

Yesterday we ‘did’ San Fran. Well Keli did anyhow. I chose to ‘do’ dirt biking with Dowdsy instead. Awesome balls! Mark & Claire have just moved down from Toronto and in a bid to assimilate with the natives Mark bought motocross bikes for his son Shaughn and himself. 4 hours of racetracks and trail riding. Fabulous. We grabbed dinner with them later in the evening which was lovely. I think I looked pretty good on the old bike:

A modest attempt at cornering on the track

This morning we woke up to pure luxury. Hardy’s parents, Tom and Caroline, live in downtown SF and have a beach house on Muir Beach, just 20 mins outside of the city. We met them at 5pm and had a wonderful chat over pizza and wine, listening to their stories of living in Central America and the Caribbean, and giving them the scoop on the boat. We were both really struck by their life experience, fascinating people and really hospitable. It was lovely to meet them after hearing about them for so long.

The beach house

The house is a wonderful, simple construction of wood and glass, with a large deck. Every window had a great view of the beach. The sea or the hills. A mother and two young deer sat all morning in the back garden watching us potter around making breakfast and drinking coffee. We’re stayed on their Paris apartment twice before and they have such a knack for creating simple, liveable, inviting spaces. We envy and really hope to emulated their ability to pick special homes and then open them up to people. If we find a little hideaway in Columbia or Nicaragua we may just attempt a similar feat. Kel has just told me that it must have a place for a hammock in the shade, I think we can probably work that out. If we’re stuck we can always grab a hotel somewhere like here: houston cheap hotels.

This rights many wrongs, well this and coffee.

After falling out on the way home from the Dowdses, a small matter of me failing to follow Keli’s instructions on the freeway and then taking her admonishment thickly, we made up over a coffee – even managing a game of chess without killing each other which is almost unheard of! It’s difficult to remain grumpy in such a zen like location, perhaps Maginness and Robinson need an all expenses paid trip to Muir beach- there’s even a nudist beach just below the house they could hang out on, so to speak.

Andrea and Hardy have become a continual source of amazing holiday destinations to us. I first met Andrea, pre Kel and Hardy, after failing in an attempt to chat up a hot lady at a Coldplay gig in New York. Having walked her (hot girl) back to her car and returned without so much as a peck on the cheek to a mile long queue for the bus home I didn’t fancy being delayed. I quietly slid in to the front of the queue attempting to arouse no suspicion and was greeted by a feisty Italian American who asked ‘excuse me, who are you?’ to which I of course replied ‘don’t worry, I’m just a queue jumper’. By the time our journey finished we had a date at her local Jesuit mass on Sunday, which became my NY church. That one little social infraction (i like to view it as charming and cheeky, almost Russell Brand esk?) gave birth to an amazing friendship that has opened Kel and I to great holidays in New York, Palermo, Paris, California and now a divine night in a beach house in San Fran.

It’s a funny, and in some ways lucky or coincidental happening, that has given birth to an amazing friendship. But I also think it’s the fruit of living hospitably and making conscious decisions to pursue opportunities as they arise. You make your own luck on these ones. Andrea and Hardy are already planning return visits to Columbia and Barbados which is really exciting, and we’re really hoping that Tom and Caroline make a trip out as well.

Today was also a really big sailing day as we viewed the Beneteau for the first time. As I mentioned earlier this week there are four options on the go, one of which was in San Fran. It was our first time on this type of boat, and we both had bucket loads of hopes and fears. Whatever we buy will be our home for the next 3-6 years, and despite all our research and rational thought, the right boat has to ‘feel’ right. What fun.

The boat in Alameda

It felt right. Spacious living, good deck layout. A well-loved boat waiting for new carers. This particular one has only had one owner, and has been on SF it’s whole life. We spent an hour working our way through a checklist, and in the end are both convinced that it’s the right model. We’re probably going to make our first offer on the boat in Rhode Island, it’s cheaper to start with and has a lot more kit, but this boat is a perfect backup which is great. I’ll phone our broker tomorrow to begin the bidding process.

On that note, somebody please tell me what’s to become of the stock markets and the global economy in general?! (204 miles to L.A. apparently) I’ve been watching the money markets, stock markets and housing news non-stop since we arrived in Canada as we’re going to have to convert pounds to dollars to buy the boat. In July the exchange rate was about 2:1, whereas today it’s down to about 1.75 USD to the pound- ouch! Thankfully we managed to sell our house, unlike so many of our friends, but I’m continually amazed at the extent of the crisis, and the complete failure of the free market to self regulate. Feels like a good time to be away actually, and definitely a time to learn some lessons about living more cheaply, or at least within our means- something we never managed in Ireland.

So, my turn to drive- does this road last forever or what? We’ll have driven 3000 miles by the time we get back to Vancouver- that’s about the distance of our longest ocean crossing, from Galapagos to French Polynesia. In a boat that takes a month mind you, I’ll write a book during that one!

One little story that I thought worth a mention happened in the doctors surgery, where we took Gran for a quick check-up on Thursday. Gran is fairly deaf and so conversations happen a volume that lacks subtlety. Returning from her consultation she waited with me while Keli booked her next appointment. We were chatting away when she leaned in to my ear and whispered, at something like 60 decibels, ‘have that man’s trousers split dear? It looks like his crotch is bursting out, perhaps the stitching has gone?’ The man was sitting directly opposite us, probably 8 feet away and of course heard every word. I maintained my compusure and avoided eye contact. I said to Gran, at a more modest volume, that I wasn’t aware whether his trousers had split, to which she replied (again at 60 dbs) ‘well take a look then and find out for me’. At which point Keli returned and we made a swift exit. We laughed a lot when we got home!

We got down tonight and headed out to the ballet – a production called ’9 Sinatra Songs’ by Ballet BC. I’m not exactly fluent in ballet, but I’m learning slowly. Kel had a great night and really enjoyed seeing the company again – she used to have season tickets.

Now we’re heading off again, this time on a road trip to San Francisco to view a yacht, and then to our awesome friends Andrea and Hardy in Riverside. We’re hooking up with Mark and Claire Dowds on the way through SF and I’m going dirt biking with Mark and Shaughan which will be amazing! Then on the way home we’re stopping in Seattle with Michelle Ford and our friends Marge and Bob Liston.

So, off to start packing for a 5am departure from Vancouver, but just wanted to touch base with our whereabouts. The boat we’re looking at is one of four in our shortlist, and I’d say it’s probably no.2 at present, but no.1 is in Rhode Island – a long way away. It amazes me that we will be driving for 17 hours tomorrow and still be another 7 away from Andrea and Hardy!

Check out the boats here if you’d like, if I new how I’d start a poll!

No.1
No.2 – which we’re going to see on Monday.
No.3
No.4

Will get another proper post up as we travel, and we’ll bring the camera so we can capture some shots of me killing myself on a scrambler!