Editor’s note: This article was one Eric had sketched out for 2012 and was completed with assistance from Tsunami Ranger Captain Jim Kakuk.
Disclaimer: We’re just joking.
HELL = Hedonistic Epicurean Libertine Lifestyle.
From time to time on this website you’ll hear references to HELL. Hell means a lot of different things to different people. There is the traditional hell as described by Dante in his “Inferno”. But to the Tsunami Rangers it means “Hedonistic Epicurean Libertine Lifestyle”. Let’s examine this.
In philosophy, hedonism means the doctrine that pleasure is the principal of good and should be the aim of action, or pleasure-seeking as a way of life. To be hedonistic is to live a life of pleasure and self-indulgence.
Epicureanism is similar but different. Epicurus, who lived around 342 BCE, believed the goal of man should be a life of pleasure regulated by morality, temperance, serenity and cultural development
Lastly, a libertine is someone who is free (i.e. liberty). In Roman times to be a libertine was literally to be a freedman. A libertine can also be one who indulges his desires without restraint, a rake or debauchee. A rarer but applicable meaning is a free-thinker, a skeptic.
Now you have an idea of what HELL means: a principle of enjoyment moderated by restraint. As Eric used to say, “We believe in moderation. LOTS of moderation!” With 7 wives between them Eric and Jim, co-founders of the Tsunami Rangers, would seem to exemplify HELL.
Disclaimer #2: OF COURSE WE ARE JOKING. However, Eric and Jim HAVE had 7 wives between them.
Here are Tsunami Ranger Capt. Jim Kakuk’s top reasons to go to HELL:
- All my friends are going to be there.
- It is sin – sational and temptous.
- You can get there in a hand basket.
- The road to hell is paved (with good intentions).
- You can go straight to hell.
- Three strikes and you’re in!!!
- You’re safe from acts of God because he/she can’t damn you there.
- All sinners are saints.
- The Angels there get to ride Harleys – you have heard of them.
- A lot of people go through hell.
- Hell is warm and the tubs are hot.
- Hell has bells.
- The little devil on my shoulder says you can get away with anything because the devil made me do it.
- You can covet your neighbor’s wife.
- You can speak of the devil all the time.
- The devil wears Prada
- The devil looks after his own.
- You don’t have to petition the Lord with prayer. (And you get a nickel if you can tell me what group and what song this is a reference to!)
- You can tell people to go to hell and they laugh.
- Everything is funny as hell.
- You can visit the devil and the deep blue sea.
- You can say Godammit and nobody cares.
- If someone says you look like the devil that’s a compliment. (Over the course of his life several people have looked at Eric and seen the Devil.)
- If you’re going to hell, at least you’re enjoying the ride (viz. the Grateful Dead song).
- You can surf the lava. (This one was Eric’s.)
All Tsunami Rangers are pleasure-seekers to some degree. All have achieved various levels of development with regard to morality, temperance, serenity, and culture. At certain times in their lives some could have been characterized as rakes, even debauchees. All are free-thinkers unmotivated by guilt.
The great thing about kayaking Tsunami style is freedom: freedom to innovate, freedom to explore, freedom to push boundaries and get out of the box; freedom of mind, body, soul and kayak … even the freedom to go to HELL.
Disclaimer #3: Juuuuuuuust jokin’! Another of Eric’s favorite phrases.
Please feel free to add your thoughts by clicking below.
Come HELL and high water! Paying the devil his dues today with the Sea Ranch Tribe in sunny warm Sonoma. Nicely done article Nancy.
Uuuhhhhh, right, Jim, considering you wrote most of it 😉 It was a HELL of a lot of fun putting it together! Thanks for all your input!
That’s a funny acronym.
For the nickel, I’m going with “An American Prayer” by The Doors.
25. “You can surf the lava” 🙂
Rainer, you are soooo close. Want to give it another go?
“The Soft Parade” by the Doors
~;
You got it!!! I owe you a nickel! Hit me up next time I see you (maybe the race next year?)
Appropriate proverb for this blog post: “He that would go to sea for pleasure, would go to hell for a pastime.”
And on those 7 wives… Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned
Peter, I wanted to put that one about the scorned woman in, but it wasn’t part of the Tsunami lexicon, although Eric did find it out the hard way. However, as we discovered, a martini makes everything okay 🙂
And thanks for passing on the proverb – I hadn’t heard that one before, but I do believe it’s true.
If you guys dig down towards hell, down down down into the fiery pits and then keep digging further… eventually you’ll pop out the other side of the world in sunny Australia! Sure, it’s hot Down Under, but you know we’ll all know how to have a good time!
Nice post Nancy and Kuk. Cheers, FP
FP, heading that way December 4th – i will be on your sunny side of the planet for 4 months enjoying some hedonistic pursuits downunder. Will try to make it to Sydney, maybe in January, are you around then?
Definitely Kuk, would love to catch up, splash about in the surf and throw down a tequila or two. Let me know when you’re about!
FP, I thought of saying something about “Down Under” but wanted to keep it simple. Glad you brought that up. From what I see of Tess’s Facebook posts, HELL is totally happening Down Under 🙂 Glad you enjoyed the post.
I can really identify with what’s been said about freedom…I believe this is a big factor in why many of us kayak. There’s nothing like plowing through waves, riding the surge through rock gardens, paddling full throttle…the feeling of being wild, free, exuberant! This is something we share with wild animals. Several years ago, I had an epiphany about this. I was watching a herd of wild mustang running, and was really impressed at their apparent exhilaration in running flat-out! They loved life, and they loved being free, and this resulted in them running, well, like wild horses. I often get this same sensation out in my kayak, with the adrenaline and endorphins having a field day! I believe that most wild creatures treasure their freedom above all else. About a year ago, I found an injured pigeon in the parking lot where I work. The injury wasn’t severe, but the poor bird looked worn out from whatever trauma had befallen it. I took the bird home and cared for it. After a few days, I took the box that it was in out of the garage, and opened the cover. Now is when you may start thinking I may be a bit crazy (you would, of course, be correct), but after I removed the cover from the box, the pigeon looked at me, with a cock of its head. The look on that bird’s face was ” You mean, I am free to leave? THANK YOU!!!.” Then it flew off, at first to a nearby rooftop peak, and after it got its bearings, it flew away. We have no trouble thinking that a wild horse or an eagle cherishes its freedom, but here was a PIGEON, and it too loved its liberty! In our advanced technological society today, it is easy to be enslaved to many things. That is why, for me anyway, it’s so important to get out there every now and then, and be a free and wild spirit.
Freedom. Eric was always trying to burst the bonds that contained, or attempted to contain him. I think the ultimate bondage is our embodiment on this planet in this life, and death the only true freedom. I guess I’m waxing philosophical because today would have been our anniversary.
Thanks, Tony for your story. It reminds me of something Eric once wrote: The child said of the Seals and Croft song Hummingbird “My favorite part of that song is ‘Fly away, fly away'”. He called it a “funny proverb”. He liked to make stuff like that up.