When the Rat Race is Over

I spent a day on a $100 million yacht owned by a billionaire.

I've put some pictures of my stateroom below, but they don't do it justice.

No expense was spared.

There was an elevator, which is something you need, of course, since there are 4 floors.

There was marble everywhere; a classical Italian-style dining room with crystal chandeliers. One of the "living room" areas had diamonds encrusted in the ceiling.  There were not one, but two saunas (one wet, one dry) from which you could exit and immediately jump into the water.

The front of the ship had a crane for lifting the jet skis and tender boat in and out of the water.  The technology on the bridge was, well, you can imagine.  The boat's battery provided 12 hours of power and that doesn't include the 2 diesel engines with I can't remember how much horsepower, but it was a lot.

We had to take a 12 minute speedboat ride from the Marina just to get there.

We had meals using gold-plated Versace cutlery.

I'm barely scratching the surface here, though the yacht itself had no scratches and not a speck of dust or lint anywhere. 

You would eat off the floor of the engine room.

But the thing that stuck with me the most was something the owner of the yacht said during dinner.

"When I was younger, I was so [finanically] hungry. I just wanted more.  Now, I see that 'more' doesn't do it. I'm not hungry anymore."

And I thought to myself...."this is where the Rat Race ends. I've seen the finish line of the world of consumption and when you get there,  you still feel empty."

We all have a choice.

Continue to acquire more stuff in the hope that it will make us happy or decide to invest in ourselves and our personal development.

I've been to the end of Rat Race road and seen the view and I have the pics to prove it.

The question many college students get wrong...

Despite some of my previous rants against the system of higher education in America today, my issue is not with the concept of a liberal arts well-rounded education.

My issue is with the cost, the lack of academic rigor, and decreasing amounts of intellectual honest/integrity.  

I also, for the record, like the idea of having people from diverse backgrounds co-exist...or try to.

However, one of the most commonly cited criticisms by students (and adults) of a traditional liberal arts education is:

"When will I ever use that [history, English, philosophy, art, literature, psychology, etc.] in REAL life?"

Well, let me tell you a story. 

In college, I took two semesters of a class from one of the world's foremost experts on French history, Orest Ranum.

The first was called "French Government in Thought and Practice from 1648-1715." The second was either the period immediately before or after that. Sorry, can't remember.

Anyway, that's about as good as an example as you will find of a class that would seemingly have no future practical value.

So, let me tell you a story.

A few months ago, I was at a dinner with a number of very (and I do mean very) successful business people.

I don't know the total net worth of the table, but easily into the billions.

I happened to be sitting next to the investment banker for one of them.

Turns out...he's French.

We start talking and he was naturally skeptical that I, being American, know all that much about France. 

After all, he would normally be right. The average American sadly doesn't have a serious depth of knowledge about France.

Well, thank you Orest Ranum. 

After I shared my thoughts on the Edict of Nantes among other things, we discussed some of the various regions in France. 

The result? I could tell he was relaxed.

That led to us having a pretty in-depth conversation and establishing mutual trust.

I remember thinking afterwards....

"you want to know when you will use a French history class that you took in college?  

You'll use it nearly 30 later at a dinner with one of the world's top investment bankers who happens to French.  You won't use it to show off, but to show him (or her) that you are educated, thoughtful, and appreciate other people's histories outside of America. This will set you apart as different, which is what you are trying to do."

Seeing New York as a Traveler

Following a week in Greece, I had the opportunity to spend a week in the NY/NJ area.  

While there was one official business activity that was on the agenda, I was determined to explore the city as a traveler, keeping an open mind and doing my best to notice and observe things around me.

There were many highlights to the trip, including seeing Michael Merwitz, a friend from Snickelways whom I had not seen in 20 years and Adam/Josette, who are about to get married.

But the most epic activity of the week involved my Uncle Sol who met me at 34th and Lexington and then we proceeded down 2nd Ave through the Lower East Side over the Williamsburg bridge and towards Park Slope.  

Over 7 miles all told.

We were blessed with great weather overall and I was fortunate to have a lifelong New Yorker, my Uncle Sol, with me to point out key landmarks along the way, such as Yonah Schimmel's bakery, among many others.

Sol has a wealth of knowledge about the city and its' ever-changing dynamic, having seen it over more than 5 decades.  

One of the things that is so fantastic about New York City is that, on every block, you see activity. And within a few blocks, worlds can totally change, as they did when we went from the Hasidic part of Williamsburg to a public housing section to a gentrifying part of Bedford-Stuyvestant to the upscale Park Slope.

We stopped for a few drinks and coffee along the way and found a vegan Caribbean restaurant, which was an "only in New York" type of moment. We stayed for 2.5 hours talking to the staff there about the business and the changing neighborhood.

I've lived in New York for a few years and visited over 50 times, maybe more.  It's easy to get caught up in the "get from A to B" mentality.

However, when you focus on the "to" part of "A to B," you realize just how much there is every single step of the way.

Here's our route (roughly)

Tamika at Bad Gyal Vegan made sure I stayed away from allergens

The stately Williamsburg Savings Bank, a relic of a bygone era.

The view from the rooftop of my starting point at 34th and Lexington. Not bad.

A visit to Greece-- the birthplace of Democracy

About a year ago, I called my dad and told him that I was feeling demoralized about the state of Democracy.  It's not difficult when you live at "ground zero for the twilight zone," aka- Washington, DC.

With a long legacy of 1:1 father-son trips, I suggested that he and I go to the birthplace of democracy, Greece, to find some inspiration.

So, that's what we did.

We read Plato's Republic in preparation (he did much more than that) to get ourselves in a "Greece of the mind."

More than seeing sites or even discussing democracy, I was just trying to relax the brain for a while and appreciate the fact that I was able to travel to Europe with my 84-year old father.

I noticed that, in almost every place we went, he was the oldest person by 15-20 years, a true testament that age is a state of mind, not a number.  He continues to demonstrate an insatiable thirst for knowledge and we used our time together to discuss a range of topics including democracy, authoritarianism, governance, crypto technologies, artificial intelligence, society and culture, history, Judaism, modes of transportation, and more.

Athens looks like a city that peaked a few centuries ago. It's grimy. Most Greeks seem to be depressed about the economy. There's a lot of animosity and anger towards the Germans (after all, they were the ones demanding 'austerity').  Over 500,000 young Greeks have left the county in the last 9 years. The 'brain drain' is real.

Meanwhile, the country is flailing about as it tries to figure out a way to pay for its excessive expenditures against limited revenues.  One thing that stuck out at me were signs in English and Chinese offering permanent residency and a path to citizenship for anyone who invested 250k Euros into real estate.

Essentially, the Greeks are offering to sell the land out from under their feet.  Should be fascinating to watch that.

So, modern-day Greece is depressing.  Ancient Greece's contribution to the world, however, should not be underestimated.  Leaving aside our modern sensibilities in terms of who gets to participate in the democratic process, their innovation was revolutionary.

They had term limits. There was a lottery for public roles. Everyone was expected to participate.

Plato, interestingly enough, didn't like the idea as he was afraid of "the mob"...which we basically have today on Twitter. He thought that a groomed elite was the way to go.

After 2 days in Athens, which included a visit to the Chabad house and a Greek sephardi synagogue, we took off to the tourist destination of Santorini.  Most of the year, it has a population of 15,000. In the summer, there are over 100k people on the island. 4 cruise ships stop there every day.  Yet, despite all of that, the peace and tranquility of the island, which is actually a 'caldera'-formed when a volcano collapses in upon itself and the water rushes in- is remarkable. 

Waking up to that vista every morning was just what the doctor ordered.  

We took some side excursions, most notably to Akrotiri- the archaeological site of a prehistoric Minoan civilization that demonstrated remarkable technical advancement for its time.

Overall, a great trip and I am very grateful that I had the chance to go.  Some pics are below.

Santorini has some tremendous sunsets.

Some of the cruise ships in the caldera.

The town of Fira.

Another sunset.

Father and son on the ferry from Athens to Santori.

The water of the Aegean is so blue.

The "Greek Freak" is a big deal.

The Parthenon. An impressive architectural site.

The Parthenon is a building. The Acropolis is the hill upon which it (and the other temples surrounding it) are situated.

The temple to Poseidon.

We scored a rooftop view from our hotel of the Parthenon.

Not bad.

Athens may be grimy, but it also has some wonderful sunsets as it is situated in a "bowl' surrounded by mountains. The area is known as "Attica."