amen Brotha Mink

When I was a little dude growing up and going to school, we were always told to "follow your heart and do what you love for a living." I like snowboarding, surfing, traveling, rubbing up against the ladies, and napping on warm beaches. There is absolutely no way I could make a living doing any of the things I love because I am not particularly great at any of those. If there were a contest for the Best 2-Day Hangover, then maybe I could be the best at something.

What if you kinda suck at all the things you love? THEY say you become a Team Manager. Well, what if you'd suck at that....then what? What's the next step down?

My next step down has always been to keep moving and experiencing new shit. I was "hyper" little shit as a kid, but today we diagnose those rats as ADD and give them drugs. So maybe I've still got ants in my pants. Some meditation and participating in sports daily have gained me some focus, but my mind is almost always wandering and dreaming of bigger, better adventures. Hopefully something will soon take root and I'll figure out my special purpose in life(see below). Besides the 7 consecutive years in Santa Barbara, I haven't lived in one town for more than 3 years. And now I'm getting a powerful urge to uproot again after only 15 months here. So I've been hittin up bros and semi-bros worldwide to see if they have ideas for Living The Dream in the tropics. I shot an email to my old buddy in Indo named Mink and got an inspiring series of emails. The dude is an electrician in LA who's nearing retirement in his late forties or early fifties. He spends half the year in Bali getting shacked outta his mind and importing a few surf products. When the shit hits the fan, he sells the house and expats to the Bukit. I like that plan. He sent me an the following email today....

Hey Jeff ,

It sounds like you got what I meant , the main " key " is to keep it simple . Live below your means , but always have what you need . We can want anything but don't really need much to be content and happy inside , unless the lure of the Rage of the Machine of society sucks you in and brainwashes you into believing you have to wear a certain shoe brand or drive a certain kind of car or ride a certain model board to achieve validation along with everybody else,that's where the brainwash comes in ,by everybody trying to live like and be like everybody else,it keeps feeding the " machine " , when you step off that treadmill , and watch everybody marching slavely on , it's like their mind has been taken over by society . The greatest discovery of our generation is that human beings can alter their lives by altering their state of mind, just look at Steve Jobs , he had a vision and went for it ! Kind of like us with our travels ,eh. When we create harmony in our minds and hearts, we will find it in our lives . The inner creates the outer ... ALWAYS . " not by the clothes we wear " , "The Kingdom of Heaven is Within " That way you will always stay light on your feet , easy to move from place to place to absorb the culture and people on the planet earth ! Talk to you soon,

Brother Mink

Fucken A, man. Fucken A. It doesn't answer any of my questions, and he didn't paint a good picture of working outside the US. But at least I got a little stoked to hit the road and risk stability. It'll all work out somehow....or I just might come knocking to sleep on your couch in the future.