I’m in the thick of it, people! I’m listening to DragonForce’s Through the Fire and the Flames on repeat as I write this, sipping Campo Bravo tequila from a shot glass where two dried apricots soak. The dried apricots are leftover from a bag I bought as part of a hurried grocery store stop to load up on camping food for a few days. After participating in a great Wenatchee Public Library event with fellow MilSpeak author Lauren Kay Johnson last week, I took to the Icicle Ridge area outside of Leavenworth for a few solo days of recharge.
The pictures you see are from the Chatter Creek hike I did, probably 8 - 10 miles roundtrip and around 4,000 feet of elevation gain. The yellow trees you see are larches, also known as tamaracks, and they only look like this briefly in the fall. Summer weather with plenty of marmot whistles and pika squeaks out there.
Venturing into nature solo is my version of prayer in a cathedral. I think it must be good for the spirit to spend entire days in complete surrender to the wild with barely a word spoken or listened to. To sit alone by one’s fire and float in the deep think, the undimmed stars above as the jelly-legged body rests from the day’s labors. Life epiphanies pop like fireworks. In short, I’m firing on all cylinders.
Arctic Fjord Visit
Wait, you may think, there are no arctic fjords in the Pacific Northwest! False, there are in fact two—but they are commercial fishing vessels, an older retired Arctic Fjord and a brand new, ready to work Arctic Fjord. Both are moored in Seattle at the time of this writing. I hopped aboard the new Arctic Fjord for a tour and interviews for a magazine article.
The new Arctic Fjord has endured an epic five-year build-and-delivery saga that includes a devastating hurricane that left many of the ship workers homeless and, of course, the pandemic. Arctic Fjord is designed by Kongsberg Maritime for a life in the Bering Sea trawling and processing pollock and hake, and is the first new vessel for the wild Alaska pollock catcher-processor fleet built in the USA in over 30 years.
Do you like that imitation crab (surimi) in your sushi or a tasty McDonald’s fillet-o-fish sandwich? Do you take fish oil supplements or consume fertilized produce? Do you feed your dog and/or cat high quality pet food? Well, you’ll have Arctic Fjord and her 152-person crew to thank for these things after she shoves off in a week or so and gets to work.
Just about everything in this vessel impressed me, she’s all guts and glory and chomping to go. The energy aboard from the busy pros was positive and humming, kindred spirits to astronauts and Klondike gold rushers. Computer monitors spitting diagnostic data and greased up hands cranking on ingenious, shiny metal contraptions. Fish holds the size of auditoriums, refrigeration systems like power plants. Frankly, this stuff is just too cool and I look forward to writing my full length piece. Stay tuned for that when it’s published.
In the meanwhile…
My time in the mountains and on Arctic Fjord were just a few of the notable goings on over here. I’m humming merrily along as editor of The Sea Chest and am reviewing a fresh batch of contributor articles for the upcoming Winter 2023 issue of the publication. The nonprofit Puget Sound Maritime—formerly Puget Sound Maritime Historical Society, a legacy institution established in the 1940s—picked me up as the editor for their tri-annual journal last spring and it’s been good fun. There’s fresh energy in the air with the organization and they’ve just formally brought on a new Director. Good things ahead on this front, I’ll keep you in the loop.
There’s all kinds of other epic stuff I want to talk about, but it’s not quite time. Soon, I hope.
Norris Reads: Account of a Mediocre Samurai
I’ve been too in the trenches to crack open a new book this week, and ya know what? That’s just how it is sometimes. Yes, I am still picking at Infinite Jest as per my previous article, but I find that work best enjoyed in small doses. I actually want to finish the bloody thing this time, even if it takes me a few years at a snail’s pace.
But in the interest of spreading “the good stuff”, I stumbled upon this YouTube Channel Voices of the Past while putting on idle audio to work to. I really enjoyed this reading of a firsthand account of a self-described mediocre samurai’s life. The author, Katsu Kokichi (1843), is 42 and reflects upon his wild, messy experiences with a note of repentance and gratitude. From the opening:
“Although I indulged in every manner of nonsense and folly in my lifetime, heaven seems not to have punished me as of yet… I must’ve been born under a lucky star the way I did whatever I pleased. No other samurai with such a low stipend spent money as I did, and how I blustered and swaggered around with a trail of followers at my beck and call… I ate my fill of good food and bought however many prostitutes as I liked.
I lived life fully. Only recently have I come to my senses and begun to act more like a human being… my friends were all bad, and none good. Unable to distinguish between right and wrong, I took my excesses as the behavior of heroes and brave men. In all things I was misguided, and I’ll never know how much anguish I caused my parents, relatives, wife, and children. Even more reprehensible, I behaved most disloyally to my lord and master The Shogun, and with uttermost defiance to my superiors. Thus did I finally bring myself to this lower state. When I think of my past, my hair stands on end. He who calls himself a man would do well not to imitate my ways.”
It’s corny, but encountering accounts like this—and smiling or cringing at the well written prose and strangely familiar stories from a completely unfamiliar time and place—makes me feel a deep sense of peace and warmth. The Bard was right, all the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players. If the spirit of Kokichi can hear me, thank you for writing your memoir. If you enjoyed this video, you should consider liking, sharing, and subscribing to Voice of the Past channel to support their good work.