This is a cracker Scott. Congratulations both on this post and on a year of excellent writing. I have enjoyed your output thoughout. Happy New Year to you and yours - may 2023 be a prosperous and successful one for you.
As for suggestions I like the combo of the sea, Christian values and commonsense already. Although if you noticed anything to do with the oil services sector I’d pay attention.
Scott, I like the thought provoking links you make to things that are important to me. Sometimes you entertain and inform with tales from your maritime life. It's a great mix and I never know what's coming in the next post. So the only thing I would ask for is to keep going steady as you go.
Incredible post! Most of what I’ve learned about life I learned from my severely disabled son. Thank you for this….being angry hasn’t worked! Perhaps I’ll try love and understanding in 2023!! 😊
What I like about your well written posts is that invariably they are (1) thought provoking and (2) I often learn something about a topic I know nothing about, e.g., seafaring. The later is a topic I would like to hear more about. Your industriousness and humility are inspiring.
Scott, Thank you for the history lessons and insights.
OK so I understand what you mean “men, stop being alone so much” but I struggle with social interaction. The implicit feedback I continue to get keeps me withdrawing, could you explore that in your writing?
Secondly, I have travelled for work internationally for 18 years, longer if you count service. How do you manage your two lives? (I would appreciate anything you are willing to share)
Happy New Years, I look forward to reading your work in the New Year.
I don't know how you find the time but I certainly enjoy and appreciate your writing. The nautical aspect for me is a big draw. There's usually at least one nugget in each post - I'd never heard about the Ox and the Ass nativity scene, so I thank you for that.
As to future essays, I'll second the 'dark fleet'. In addition to your topics , I'm curious about :
- how much cheating goes on (ranging from underpaid wages, smuggling, either en-masse with connivance of the owner or small scale by crew, extent of bribery, bunker fuel scrubbers etc.).
- bulk/container/tanker - perhaps mundane to you - how long does it take to refuel a ship, re-provision a ship and what's involved in arriving/departing a port (is there a nautical equivalent of a flight plan ?), how and in what currency are crew paid (cash ?), can they leave the ship at port, how often do they go AWOL etc. It's become quite apparent to me how dependent we are on shipping yet we just take it for granted and don't really know what goes on behind the scenes.
- Mission to Seafarers, if you've ever encountered them
I only found your substack from a recent referral but echo many of the comments below. The nautical context to some of your blogs I find fascinating. Whilst not being a church goer now, I was brought up in a 1950s rural community where it would have been unthinkable not to be seen regularly at church.
The Christian message sunk in and as later years bring personal rather than career and pecuniary challenges the parables and values inculcated in those boring sermons and endless repetition seem more relevant than ever. Your musings in this area prompt me to think deeper.
So for me, keep doing what you are doing and if it pleases you to increase the nautical themes that would also be great.
Hi Scott, thanks for your post. The discussion of the ox and ass reminded me of how Pope Benedict discussed them in his book Jesus of Nazareth (the infancy narrative). There is a link to them representing the Jews and Gentiles but some other ideas as well. I have coped out below:
The manger, as we have seen, indicates animals, who come to it for their food. In the Gospel there is no reference to animals at this point. But prayerful reflection, reading Old and New Testaments in the light of one another, filled this lacuna at a very early stage by pointing to Isaiah 1:3 “The ox knows its owner and the ass its master’s crib; but Israel does not know, my people does not understand.”
Peter Stuhlmacher points out that the Greek version of Habakkuk 3:2 may well have contributed here: “In the midst of two living creatures you will be recognised… when the time has come you will appear.” The two living creatures would appear to refer to the two cherubs on the mercy-seat of the ark of the covenant (Exodus 25: 18 – 20) who both reveal and conceal the mysterious presence of God. So the manger has in some sense become the Ark of the Covenant, in which God is mysteriously hidden among the men, and before which the time has come for “ox and ass” – humanity made up of Jews and Gentiles – to acknowledge God.
Through this remarkable combination of Isaiah, Habakkuk and Exodus and the manger, the two animals now appear as an image of a hitherto blind humanity which now, before the child, before God's humble self-manifestation in the stable, has learned to recognise him, and in the lowliness of his birth receives the revelation that now teaches all people to see. Christian iconography adopted this motif at an early stage. No representation of the crib is complete without the ox and the ass.
I'd also appreciate hearing your thoughts about bringing up children to prepare them for the society of the next 30 years or more when they are adults.
Tried several times to write a longer comment but I just can’t quite put the words across and keep deleting and starting again. However I really do enjoy your writing, as a 37yr old new dad of a daughter of 10 weeks I find your parenting insights extremely helpful down here in England.
Keep fighting the good fight, I look forwards to reading more in 23, and will work on a more constructive comment in the future.
My 2c on the posting schedule: I quite like the lack of a schedule, since the appearance of a new post conveys the contours of your working life - explicitly since you usually speak to the most recent job, but also implicitly.
Would love to hear more about your industry. It’s a fascinating business and it’s clear that there’s so much going on under the surface (forgive the pun!)
This is an amazing post, Scott, that I spontaneously cross posted it right away! Wishing you a great start to the new year!
This is a cracker Scott. Congratulations both on this post and on a year of excellent writing. I have enjoyed your output thoughout. Happy New Year to you and yours - may 2023 be a prosperous and successful one for you.
Hi Scott
Enjoyed your posts all year.
As for suggestions I like the combo of the sea, Christian values and commonsense already. Although if you noticed anything to do with the oil services sector I’d pay attention.
Cheers
Rob
Scott, I like the thought provoking links you make to things that are important to me. Sometimes you entertain and inform with tales from your maritime life. It's a great mix and I never know what's coming in the next post. So the only thing I would ask for is to keep going steady as you go.
Incredible post! Most of what I’ve learned about life I learned from my severely disabled son. Thank you for this….being angry hasn’t worked! Perhaps I’ll try love and understanding in 2023!! 😊
What I like about your well written posts is that invariably they are (1) thought provoking and (2) I often learn something about a topic I know nothing about, e.g., seafaring. The later is a topic I would like to hear more about. Your industriousness and humility are inspiring.
Scott, Thank you for the history lessons and insights.
OK so I understand what you mean “men, stop being alone so much” but I struggle with social interaction. The implicit feedback I continue to get keeps me withdrawing, could you explore that in your writing?
Secondly, I have travelled for work internationally for 18 years, longer if you count service. How do you manage your two lives? (I would appreciate anything you are willing to share)
Happy New Years, I look forward to reading your work in the New Year.
Regards, Martin
I don't know how you find the time but I certainly enjoy and appreciate your writing. The nautical aspect for me is a big draw. There's usually at least one nugget in each post - I'd never heard about the Ox and the Ass nativity scene, so I thank you for that.
As to future essays, I'll second the 'dark fleet'. In addition to your topics , I'm curious about :
- how much cheating goes on (ranging from underpaid wages, smuggling, either en-masse with connivance of the owner or small scale by crew, extent of bribery, bunker fuel scrubbers etc.).
- bulk/container/tanker - perhaps mundane to you - how long does it take to refuel a ship, re-provision a ship and what's involved in arriving/departing a port (is there a nautical equivalent of a flight plan ?), how and in what currency are crew paid (cash ?), can they leave the ship at port, how often do they go AWOL etc. It's become quite apparent to me how dependent we are on shipping yet we just take it for granted and don't really know what goes on behind the scenes.
- Mission to Seafarers, if you've ever encountered them
Here's to 2023
I only found your substack from a recent referral but echo many of the comments below. The nautical context to some of your blogs I find fascinating. Whilst not being a church goer now, I was brought up in a 1950s rural community where it would have been unthinkable not to be seen regularly at church.
The Christian message sunk in and as later years bring personal rather than career and pecuniary challenges the parables and values inculcated in those boring sermons and endless repetition seem more relevant than ever. Your musings in this area prompt me to think deeper.
So for me, keep doing what you are doing and if it pleases you to increase the nautical themes that would also be great.
Hugh
Hi Scott, thanks for your post. The discussion of the ox and ass reminded me of how Pope Benedict discussed them in his book Jesus of Nazareth (the infancy narrative). There is a link to them representing the Jews and Gentiles but some other ideas as well. I have coped out below:
The manger, as we have seen, indicates animals, who come to it for their food. In the Gospel there is no reference to animals at this point. But prayerful reflection, reading Old and New Testaments in the light of one another, filled this lacuna at a very early stage by pointing to Isaiah 1:3 “The ox knows its owner and the ass its master’s crib; but Israel does not know, my people does not understand.”
Peter Stuhlmacher points out that the Greek version of Habakkuk 3:2 may well have contributed here: “In the midst of two living creatures you will be recognised… when the time has come you will appear.” The two living creatures would appear to refer to the two cherubs on the mercy-seat of the ark of the covenant (Exodus 25: 18 – 20) who both reveal and conceal the mysterious presence of God. So the manger has in some sense become the Ark of the Covenant, in which God is mysteriously hidden among the men, and before which the time has come for “ox and ass” – humanity made up of Jews and Gentiles – to acknowledge God.
Through this remarkable combination of Isaiah, Habakkuk and Exodus and the manger, the two animals now appear as an image of a hitherto blind humanity which now, before the child, before God's humble self-manifestation in the stable, has learned to recognise him, and in the lowliness of his birth receives the revelation that now teaches all people to see. Christian iconography adopted this motif at an early stage. No representation of the crib is complete without the ox and the ass.
I'd also appreciate hearing your thoughts about bringing up children to prepare them for the society of the next 30 years or more when they are adults.
Hi Scott,
Tried several times to write a longer comment but I just can’t quite put the words across and keep deleting and starting again. However I really do enjoy your writing, as a 37yr old new dad of a daughter of 10 weeks I find your parenting insights extremely helpful down here in England.
Keep fighting the good fight, I look forwards to reading more in 23, and will work on a more constructive comment in the future.
All the best.
happy NY.
My 2c on the posting schedule: I quite like the lack of a schedule, since the appearance of a new post conveys the contours of your working life - explicitly since you usually speak to the most recent job, but also implicitly.
Would love to hear more about your industry. It’s a fascinating business and it’s clear that there’s so much going on under the surface (forgive the pun!)