Category: Story

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Life Quotes

The secret of happiness is not doing what we like but in liking what we do.
— J.M. Coetzee

Look at me if you wish, you won’t find anything I haven’t discovered for myself and come to terms with. I’ve probed my depths: you’re free to try too if you want to. Provided you do not expect it to give you any claim on me.
— Andre Brink

Perhaps it does us good…to have a fall every now and then. As long as we don’t break.
— J.M. Coetzee

In my experience poetry speaks to you either at first sight or not at all. A flash of revelation and a flash of response. Like lightning. Like falling in love.
— J.M. Coetzee

The best thing a father can do is die when his son is in his teens. This is apparently the case with many world leaders and happened to my own father. The process ensured that he grew up extremely quickly into a responsible, hard-working adult.
— Geraint Anderson

 

Photo by Faye Cornish

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Looking into the Jaws of a Great White Shark – The Story of Shannon Ainslie

This story blew me right off my chair coughing up my coffee, and had me reconsider today's regular Sunday Surf Trip. Everybody knows there are no sharks around Lisbon,  but my next dip into the cold ocean was no doubt gonna be tense and edgy.

What you are about to read is one amazing testimonial in faith, and the most unbelievable true story of survival that side of the Vatican. It is the only clip in the world of two sharks  simoultaneously attacking a surfer. You don't even have to take my word for it - You can watch it.

The story was published on October 7th, 2013 in The Surf Channel.

At just 15 years of age, Shannon Ainslie was mauled by two 15 ft (4.5 meter) great white sharks while surfing Nahoon Reef in East London, South Africa.

About an hour into his surf, Shannon was riding a wave when two sharks attacked him. The shark on the left struck the surfboard underneath launching him into the air. Upon plunging  back into the sea under the surface - the shark bit Shannon's right hand dragging him deeper. During this time, the shark on the right went for his head and shoulders, but it missed him, because the shark on the left got in the way.

In his own words: "I remember staring the shark face-to-face underwater with its mouth wide open. I could see its one eye just staring into my face… It was super close. I could’ve reached to touch it or stick my hand in its mouth. Then, it swam past me, slowly turned around and then shoved me forward deeper under the water from behind"

Read the entire story published in Surf Channel on October 7th, 2013 here

Watch two great white sharks attack Shannon Ainslie in the below clip

 

Photo by Nathaniel Shuman

 

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The Roman Character: Confidently Facing the Future, Conserving the Past

ROME NEVER FOUGHT TO IMPOSE a political idea or a religious creed. On the contrary, she left local institutions and manners of thought untouched.

In Rome's imperial expansion, self defence was accounted the first motive; but trade inevitably followed and the first motive was mingled with that of commercial exploitation. True, reasons of safety safety were sometimes alleged in order to hide greed and ambition.

Rome fought to 'impose the ways of peace' and by peace she meant the positive blessings of settled order and security of life and property.

We can't say that a religion such as the old Roman religion promoted greatly the religious development of man; it carried no intellectual appeal and was therefore unable to contribute a theology. But it is certain that with the associations and habits which clustered round its contribution to Roman character was great. Great men were almost canonized for their characters or for their achievements.

To the beliefs and manners of these days we must ascribe that sense of subordination  or obedience to exterior power, whether a god, or a standard, or an ideal, which in one form or another - marked the Roman to the end.

To the same source must be traced the feeling for continuity which preserves the constant, assimilates the new and refused to break with the past. For the future could be be faced with greater security if the values of the past were conserved.

 

Photo by Vek Labs

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Darkness on the edge of town

THE LAST RAYS OF THE SUN are closing in on the Soukka beach in Espoo, Finland at 15.18pm on December 2014. The sea is covered with a thin ice.

I hate the winter darkness. Not the winter but the darkness. Winters are no more like when I was a child-plenty with snow, the white pushing away the dull grey. That's why I prefer living more south. The grey of Nantes in France contains more light than the sun up north in December.

There is darkness and then there is November in Finland. The latter is far more mind-numbing. Darkness attacks first the mind, then enters the soul.
Far-away foreigners flicking through Lonely Planer assume the Nordics are living a life to die for. No crime, much space, wild nature next to the cities, a party with the health services...

But in October, the warm summer nights are long gone and forgotten-then darkness and frost arrives. Short, colourless grey days, and a chill that is felt to the bone ensure the mind won't be able to reach for much light either. And as if THAT wasn't enough, by November the dark brown sleet on the motorways and eternal lack of sunlight dispatches the most vulnerable and weak into the 'recharging department' at the country's numerous mental institutions. Many foreigners are little aware of the dull and mentally mediocre life in darkness people put up with most part of the year in Scandinavia. Uninterested faces, grunts as greetings, avoidance of physical contact at any price. The security and efficiency of a northern nation turns into an isolated and silent zombieland.

Then Spring. Suddenly Helsinki wakes up to a March morning - alive and with a promise of something new. Temperature is still below zero at 7.30am, but it doesn't matter because the sun is already high. The grumpy and silent inhabitants turn into smiling sociable companions. People looking past their feet, which is pretty much said of a Finnish person. After the dark, cold winter, the Finnish turn into open human beings, ready ro talk anytime and anywhere. Almost compassionate.
Relief of the returning light. The shrill cry of the seagull. The world is again open and full of opportunities. Chatter on the street. Feeling of a weight being removed. How do you explain this to somebody living in Brazil or in the Caribbean? You don't because anybody who hasn't been through a Nordic winter can't understand what it is.

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Know what you’re looking for

FOR EACH TYPE OF FISH you must prepare in a certain way. Each species behaves different - prefers varying depth, light and temperature. Fish isn't just fish. Got to have the right equipment to handle each type.
You have to study carefully the depth - if you miss the right depth you will end up hands empty. Each species prefer a certain depth. You'll need a sonar to measure that. A couple of meters from the the bottom, a little vegetation close to the shore-throw in a metalpiece-and-hook, no pike can resist that! Or try a living bait. Different story altogether. Link the line onto a pole at shore for the night, then get in early.

Speed is everything. Put your boat running a few knots per hour. Once you hit a colony, you just need some muscle to start pulling them up. Sounds easy? Chuck in many baits at the same time and it's a lollipop every time!
What about thickness of the line? If it's too thick, the metal bait will swim unevenly from one side to the other. A line too thin will break when the pike strikes, then you'll lose the effort.

Got to know your place. Got to read your echo-sounder. Got to know your fish. Got to know your bait. Got to know where to look, and how to look. And before anything else - you got to know what you're looking for.
Right?

 

Photo by Lance Anderson