All Phil productions.


The mind simply stops flexing. There is no more questing for this or that. No more worrying. Complications fade away. Whatever you are doing at that moment is the most natural thing that you could ever do. Your attention is surreal and your every action is charged with emphasis. You could be looking, listening, conversing, reading, playing or just plain sitting. Every part of your being flows. Time flies by and you weren’t even watching. Live for that moment of tranquility. Love, simply.

It takes a special breed to be able to sacrifice one�s time, effort, and sleep to something as impractical as crew. By impractical I mean that this group of people does not directly add to your individual sense of psychological stability, mental security, or financial success, if anything, we will wear you so thin your mind and body will be begging you to acquiesce. In return, you will be stronger, faster, better � you will be accepted by peers with comprable fortitude of will. Each ounce of toil, trouble, and tears will be viciously churned and refined into a unique sense of community proportionally reflective of work invested and pain endured.

An idea is an envisionment of that which is perfect, that which man can never know in terms of physical reality. Therein lies the mystery of the unspoken word, the mental projection of what something could be. The magic of a thing's name alludes to something never referenced; we are surrounded by the manmade and the imperfect. What is white? What is a square? What is man? I have never seen a one.

let your heart breathe
let your mind exhale
for all is well

Time worn and war torn
Is what I am and wish to be
Never a present forlorn
Friends to the end, assuredly
Yet, their passing lies ne'er mourned
The honor in death's call
All for and for all
Life, love, and loyalty

all the world's a stage for we imperfect and impotent gods. with each sin-ridden decision and ill-gotten gain we sink deeper into the crowded quagmire of human condition and mortality. concurrently, we appreciate all the more the grace, mystery, and beauty of individual moments deserving of perpetuity. remember, to thine ownself be true, your neighbors fair, your countrymen just, your family loving, your friends trusting, to yesterday appreciative, to today more-than-satisfied, to tomorrow anxious, and to everyday, thankful.

1) Do not experience the world by recollecting past occurences. Just experience it. 2) Do not conform to your own definition. Seek change and growth. 3) Act as if nothing has ever happened, but take things at face value. Accept without accepting, disregard without disregarding. 4) Always be in control, despite fear, in an effort to dissipate cowardice and obsession. 5) working on it sweet sorrow is the lover's pairless confusion: an eternity with and an eternity without, as infinite and interwined as day and night.

denial versus ignorance

Like a beggar I bow my head to reason and sensibility; everything conforms to its own definition. In my fear of the unknown I solidy myself to one habitual reality, one strict set of rules and regulations, thereby forcing myself into a state of constant ignorance, denial, or self-interred conflict.

"taking chances" is a craving for the inexperienced experiences: the direct result of an inner need for change, reevalution of current habits or values, or the temporary thrill caused by jaunting into the unknown.

personality is your individual soul molded through familial, social, and cultural influences and tempered by one own's experiences

rivalry born from an instinctual need for dominance can create lasting bonds of friendship borne of filial understanding or intense hatred and conflict born of selfish yet comprable stubbornness of will.

Crew is a divine hammer to mold muscle into steel through perfection of technique, sharpness of mind and loss of self. For a rower, the few minutes of a race are the few minutes you do not think of racing; the only things in existence are the wind, the water, and the individual made up of five or nine parts.

Temper impulse with practicality and not reason, for reason alone will deny the needs and wants of your subconscious and the recessive, dormant self.

Do not see things in black and white, as comparisons and antitheses of each other. With that mindset all things, from nature to your fellow man, become not but forces to be subdued and abused or rivals, sources of constant, pressuring conflict.

Modernization vs Dependency theory
The modernization theory advocates the globalization of western values to decrease international inequality. The dependency theory states that the capitalist ideal that is central to western economic policy is only effective because of the raw materials and cheap labor generated in third countries; capitalism thrives on global inequality and therefore retards development of third world countries to keep first world countries dominant. The dependency theory is an international form of the conflict theory of stratification sponsored by Karl Marx who argued in the nineteenth century that the rich stay wealthy by appropriating income from workers, exploiting them.

Religion in contemporary society has lost its dominating influence over global issues and economy - a lost mob mentality. Having since been individualized to the family unit and recently the person, all archetypes of conscientious morals have fallen under the heel of government, i.e. the capitalist democracy, achilles or otherwise.

a true test of will is committing to a non-profitable action at an inopportune time

[I am not in imminent danger,] but am living in a world of temporary joys and crushed hopes where only one fate guides all. That is the one road whose dead end is hidden in the mists of time, its only power evident in the fear of anticipation.

Arms wide open
but
fists clenched tight
and
still holding nothing.

tick, tock, tick, tock goes the clock
the metronome of our times