Bioluminescence

July 1987. At the bare 40-foot racing yacht "Miss Global", equipped solely with a VHS radio, a sextant and a solar panel, I first had a clue of life at sea.
There are many superstitions among sailors, and also one great truth: there's no space in the sea for the indecisive. Either you love it or you don't. Cause it can shake you to pieces. It also does remind of the womb experience.

The first night at sea was vigil. My very experienced captain showed me how to work the compass, handed me the tiller and said 'look out for any approaching lights'. It was my first shift! With double attention and eye on the horizon, the sun was setting, and I saw a red light. My heart rushed. Suddenly it got bigger and bigger.

It was the moon.

And so I left

Mine is an extremely volatile nature. Whenever I live something unfair or amoral, it can blow me out. As a result, the top of my head feels ready to explode. The air pressure can certainly do me harm, but we should remember there's always a bright side to everything - it also gets me going. At the end, this is a balance to another side of my nature, which is quite comfort-prone.

And so I left. Couldn't stand all that inequity in my country. I was also sure I wouldn't have the chance to make a difference after graduation - in Biology, that is. I was wrong, cause twenty years later I saw all my college mates where very well, and they do make a difference. But there was also an intimate and familiar inequity. This added to the curiosity of going for something new - something different.
But the first spark was set by my sister.
There she was, working at this famous salad bar restaurant, and so she pronounced: "Daniela, you're going to Europe." I though, what a joke, and answered cunningly: "Oh, yeah? And how?". She told me she had a friend who wanted to take his yacht to Europe, and was looking for a crew member. Right that moment I took a phone token and called the lad from the nearest public phone. This move changed my life.

Why "nurture nature"?

The meanings of the word nurture relate to (1) nutrition; (2) caring; or (3) the sum of environmental aspects that influence behavior and the traits expressed by an organism.

There is plenty of philosophical debate on the value of inheritance and experiences to the human being. If you are interested in that you might want to check the writings of John Locke, Freud, Skinner, and Margaret Mead, on one hand, or of E. O. Wilson, and genetics, on the other.

But here is no place to feed on this type of discussion. More so because I STRONGLY believe that nature manifests through nurture, and nurture through nature - and that this relationship shapes our personality, health, attitudes and behaviour. The question here is how to nurture nature - our individual nature AND the collective one - the so-called "external" nature. However... here we start by the belief that they're both the same.