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Ferries: old and news facts

I) Some history

The Greek mythology is probably the first reference we have to understand the modern idea of what a ´ferry´ is although what we define as such is very far from any mythological approach. Historical studies tell us about Charon, a ferryman who embodied in Greek mythology the boatman who transported souls across the rivers Styx and Acheron to the Underworld. Bit different now, huh?.

Who was Charon? Ancient sources basically do not provide a genealogy for this man but Giovanni Boccaccio – 1313-1375 – writer and poet who was an important Renaissance humanist (famous in particular for ´The Decameron´, a collection of stories that determined the style of the Italian literary tradition and influenced the rest of Europe´s cultural panorama at that time), identified Charon as a god of time in his Genealogia Deorum Gentilium. Not a man but a god.

What was defined as the underworld? Also called Hades in Greek mythology it is a distinct realm where a person goes after death. It is described as being located at the periphery of the Earth, either associated with the outer limits of the ocean or beneath the Earth. Only the dead were allowed to enter it with only a few heroic exceptions, like Heracles, Theseus, Orpheus and possibly also Odysseus. Although the deceased could enter the underworld through various routes, the most common depiction is that of ferryman Charon taking them across. Thus let us travel in time and think that what Charon had as a job might bring us to draw some parallels regarding our modern means of transporting living mortals across various waterways, nowadays called ´ferries´. If according to the mythology this voyage meant passengers departing from the world of the living to that of the dead, archaeology confirms that in some burials only those who had been given the funeral rites qualified to be carried across one of those rivers at the cost of low-value coins – generically known as Charon´s obols – which were placed in the mouth of the deceased or near the urn containing their ashes.

In Virgil´s epic poem, Aeneid, the dead who could not pay the fee, and those who had received no funeral rites, had to wander the near shores of the Styx for one hundred years before they were allowed to cross the river. A poetic image... uncountable souls wandering the near shores of any river for a hundred years. It makes us wonder how long it takes for anyone to cross the borders between life and death in our harsh reality...

Maybe not by coincidence nowadays there is a financial charge for users of boats as means of transportation, now under the generic name ´ferry´- which can be a ship that transports passengers, vehicles or cargo or a small boat with multiple stops used in cities as Venice, Italy or Bangkok, Thailand, where they serve as public transport in many waterside cities or to and between islands. Of course, the idea of a ferry to help souls cross from the world of the living to that of the dead would never make good marketing but we can always consider the metaphor regarding the journey from life to death.

Mythology apart we have elements to establish a parallel between Charon, the ferryman of Greek mythology and the various companies providing over-water transportation in our real modern world.

II) Some literature

Maybe the figure of a ferryman was never so beautifully pictured as in ´Siddartha´ the masterpiece book by Hermann Hesse, written in German under the title: Siddhartha: ´Eine indische Dichtung´ (Siddhartha: An Indian Poem) and first published in 1922 in Germany.

The character Siddartha is a fictional Indian Brahmin's son who decides to leave his father´s privileged home to embark on a lifelong spiritual quest for self-realization and enlightenment. After spending some time with the Samana monks in the forest and even after meeting the Buddha he concludes that he could not achieve his goal through doctrine or teachers and seeks a new path. That is how he first meets Vasudeva, the ferryman who is not just a transporter but a spiritual guide. Vasudeva accepts him as his apprentice and he learns from the river, which becomes a symbol of unity, time, and the eternal present.

This is a marvellous way to think about how transporting people over the waters can signify offering a possibility to travel from a world of dissatisfaction to a life of spiritual awakening and inner peace.

III) Some actuality

Ferry boats or ships which are part of the public transport system of many waterside cities and islands, and carry passengers, vehicles and cargo at a much lower cost than bridges and tunnels.

The ferry system never stopped to expand and nowadays is of significant meaning in public transportation worldwide. In order to have a general idea of the importance of ferries for people who do not have a private yacht or learjet let us take a look at their activity in many countries.

According to 2024 general statistics the global ferry fleet is estimated at around 15,400 vessels, including large vessels and excluding about 10,000 small river ferries used regionally and it is indicated that in 2014 ferries carried approximately 4.3 billion passengers and more than 373 million vehicles annually, what market research confirms as a comparable passenger volume to the global airline industry.

At present market size growth reflects rising demand for both conventional and eco-friendly vessels in urban and island economies and we can expect major investments to be made in models that provide good transportation alternatives as the best system to protect the environment and quality of life for all. Electric driven ferries are now already servicing routes which are longer and more important than simple river crossing.

Mythology tells us about the use of boats to help us cross over bodies of water. We can learn from the ancient Greeks and great authors.

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Celibacy

At this moment when the followers of the Roman Catholicism watch the enthronement and the first actions of Pope Leo XIV after the death of Pope Francis it may be interesting to give some thoughts to celibacy, a subject that particularly concerns this religion where this is mandatory in opposition to others like the Islam where it is discouraged as marriage is considered to be a duty. This issue also relates to other religions around the world leading us to the conclusion that the decision to devote one´s life to the service of (any) God not necessarily determines choosing and adopting celibacy. However those who devote themselves to a religion that adopts celibacy must accept it not only as a requirement for certain hierarchical positions but also as a path to spiritual enlightenment. Lay members are of such a community do not have to adopt celibacy but it is a must for those embracing the religion as part of their life journey.

Why did (still do) some religions adopt celibacy and some not? In principle the idea of isolation and distancing from social contacts is shared by those who devote themselves to these religions. The quietness of empty distant places as monasteries and the sort is ground for meditation and purification providing the necessary peace in the search for God. The distractions existing in various types of societies are considered not to favor the spiritual energy.

Celibacy as the way to lead people to the best practices of their religion may bring some analysis about the fact that in various religions this is not thought so. Married religious leaders are well allowed in many religions and in others like Islam celibacy is not at all encouraged as marriage is considered to be a duty.

Here are some of the major religions and a brief summary about their approach to celibacy:

1. Buddhism

• Theravāda Buddhism: Monks (bhikkhus) and nuns (bhikkhunis) take vows of celibacy as part of their monastic discipline (Vinaya).
• Mahayana Buddhism: Celibacy is observed by monks and nuns in various traditions, such as Tibetan Buddhism and Zen Buddhism.
• Some Lay Practitioners: Certain lay followers observe temporary celibacy during retreats or special religious periods.

2. Christianity

• Roman Catholicism: Priests, monks, and nuns take vows of celibacy.
• Eastern Orthodox Church: Bishops must be celibate, while married men can become priests but cannot remarry if widowed.
• Protestantism: Celibacy is generally not required, but some individuals, such as nuns in Anglican or Lutheran traditions, may choose it.

3. Hinduism

• Sannyasa (Renunciation): Hindu monks (sannyasis) take vows of celibacy as part of renouncing worldly life.
• Brahmacharya (Student Life): Celibacy is encouraged during the early stage of life for students and spiritual seekers.
• Certain Gurus and Swamis: Many Hindu spiritual leaders adopt celibacy as part of their devotion.

4. Jainism

• Monks and Nuns (Digambara & Śvētāmbara): They take strict vows of celibacy (brahmacharya) as part of their ascetic practice.
• Lay Followers: While not fully celibate, some observe partial celibacy as part of religious discipline.

5. Taoism

• Some Taoist monks and priests, especially in monastic orders, practice celibacy to preserve spiritual energy.

6. Islam

• Celibacy is generally discouraged, as marriage is seen as a duty.
• However, Sufi mystics may practice temporary celibacy as a form of spiritual discipline.

7. Judaism

• Traditionally marriage is prevalent for all those following this religion as family life centralizes the way of living.

8. Sikhism

• Sikhism generally encourages marriage and family life.
• Some Sikh ascetics, such as Udasi monks, historically practiced celibacy.

9. Shintoism

• While Shintoism does not require celibacy, some priests and shrine maidens (miko) traditionally maintain chastity during their service

10. Zoroastrianism

• The religion generally encourages marriage, but some priests or ascetics may choose celibacy.

11. New Religious Movements

• Various modern spiritual movements, such as the Shakers, certain Hare Krishna devotees, and some branches of the Jehovah’s Witnesses, have encouraged or required celibacy.

SOME HISTORY:

The earliest known religious tradition to formally adopt celibacy as a spiritual practice was likely Jainism or certain ascetic traditions in ancient India, which predate Buddhism and possibly influenced later religious movements. However, different civilizations developed celibacy practices independently for spiritual reasons. Here’s a look at some of the earliest examples:

1. Jainism (7th–5th century BCE or earlier)

• Jain monks and nuns take strict vows of brahmacharya (celibacy) as part of their ascetic discipline.
• Jainism's founder, Mahavira (599–527 BCE), emphasized complete renunciation of worldly desires, including sex.
• Some scholars believe that Jain ascetic traditions existed even before Mahavira.

2. Brahmanical (Hindu) Asceticism (Before 1500 BCE)

• The Vedic tradition (which later evolved into Hinduism) emphasized Brahmacharya (celibacy) for students and spiritual seekers.
• The Upanishads (800–500 BCE) and earlier Vedic texts mention rishis (sages) who practiced celibacy for spiritual enlightenment.

3. Buddhism (5th century BCE)

• Siddhartha Gautama (The Buddha) rejected extreme asceticism but maintained celibacy for monks and nuns in the Sangha.
• The Buddhist Vinaya (monastic code) strictly enforces celibacy for ordained monks and nuns.

4. Ancient Egyptian Priests (c. 3000 BCE)

• Some priests of Ra, Osiris, and Isis observed celibacy while serving in temples, avoiding sexual relations to maintain ritual purity.

5. Pythagoreanism (6th century BCE)

• The followers of Pythagoras, the Greek philosopher and mystic, practiced celibacy as a way to achieve spiritual purity

6. Early Christianity (1st–4th century CE)

• Jesus and Paul advocated celibacy for spiritual devotion.
• By the 4th century, Christian monasticism had formalized celibacy for monks, nuns, and eventually Catholic clergy.

While Jainism and early Vedic traditions seem to be the first organized religions to adopt celibacy, it was a widespread spiritual concept in various cultures.

– – –

Nowadays the practice of celibacy as well as rules regarding clerical celibacy can differ and even change as time passes. Traditions remain respected but the strong changes that continuously occur in the world many times oblige religious leaders to consider adapting some rules in order to allow the continuation of the spiritual support given to the communities.

Whether or not someone devotes his/her life to a religion the celibacy issue should be taken into consideration beforehand in order to avoid much sadness, frustration and suffering caused by the impossibility some religious people face to live in celibate and chastity. Self-knowledge and psychological orientation play a crucial role here.

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NOTE: It was not possible to identify the creator of the image posted with this article. The image was found among the pictures presented by google for ´celibacy´ and it refers to ´https://www.tekedia.com/celibacy/´ but there is no mention of the creator of the image at tekedia´s website. (go back)

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Bot attack

It´s not very difficult to find definitions for this expression, just type it on any search tool – we use Ecosia, which has an ecological philosophy (check www.ecosia.org) – and there it is, not many words that bring the first light over what it is. To make it simple it is about bad people making bad use of their intelligence to make money by acting mischievously against you, companies, societies through invading your computer and stealing information, destroying your files, distributing malware, you name it.

Think about highly trained people (hackers) using their knowledge to reach evil targets like extorting money and performing illegal acts. Well, there are always those hackers who believe it is ok to make evil for what they think to be a good cause.

It can be understood as something like ´the ends justify the means´, sentence written by Ovid, a Roman poet who lived during the years 43B.C. and that became popular after having been used by Machiavelli in his book ´The Prince´. Nowadays we know it as the slogan used to justify wars, murder, destruction of people´s homes, cities, countries, all done in name of ideologies to defend the interests of powerful people. Another version of ´if you want peace be ready for the war´. In this case the soldiers are hackers whose weapons are technological knowledge and who kill your finances with something named bot attacks. The 21th century war is now made digitally and your computer is the battle field.

Moving from technology to linguistic, both subjects of crucial importance for those who are interested in learning, there is a very curious fact about the word ´bot´: besides being an obvious short form for ´robot´, it is defined as a noun used in the informal language in English (UK) to refer to a person´s bottom, according to the Cambridge Advanced Learner´s Dictionary & Thesaurus published by the Cambridge University Press.

This discovery can also lead to some considerations about three-letter words starting with B...

BAT > a flying mammal

BET > a dispute

BIT > a little piece

BOT > as mentioned

BUT > a concession

... and instead of going for attacks of any type, we suggest to use our creativity and make some sort of sentence spell. What about..:? A BAT made a BET to get a BIT of anti-BOT food BUT there was an attack and... bla bla bla.

This is an open-end story..

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The press biz

Something very wrong must be happening in the journalistic world or better said the world which arrives to our small living homes through the work of journalists. What is the best way to express this point is not so relevant here. Let´s focus on what information about what happens are we receiving by the various channels, be it newspapers, live news, podcasts, videos, you name it. Do you think most of what is broadcasted refer to happiness, well-being, kindness, development and growth of our humanity? Do you see images of smiling people?

We think news. Not special events but daily news which means significant knowledge about what´s going on so there is something real to talk about to just anyone, you know, nothing that requires a high intellectual level to be discussed, just... the basics of day-to-day life.

What are the news that fill our time during breakfast, lunch, work pauses, dinner? Are we busy with our happiness projects (do we have one?). Do we turn off our mobiles to offer full attention to those we are sharing time with? Supposing we mean to stay updated with our social contacts are we asking motivational questions that lead to fruitful conversations, to better understanding of the ideas and behaviors of those around us?… Dreams? Most probably our answer is ´no´. No, we are not thinking about us, not showing real concern for the lives of those who are part of our emotions. Instead we are discussing the latest news.

This is not an apology for ignorance as fundament for peace! It could never be. How would we progress if not by studying and trying to create better conditions for ourselves?

Thus, would there be anything wrong about staying updated? No, of course not. Alienation does not lead to improvement, enlightenment, growth of any kind. But there is something evidently wrong when the content of the information we receive and discuss is mostly negative, pointing to tragedies, destruction, diseases, the overall feeling of failure of institutions and abandon of our dreams. Every day, the continuous flow of disgrace, individualism, sadness, with little difference between the facts and most of them are a replay of old bad stories where violence, corruption and impunity are the usual ingredients used to nurture our need for knowledge. We are not getting lessons from wisdom and generosity but the contrary. We are loosing respect for morals, ethics, decency, because the daily show seems to point at success as the result of impunity, mediocrity, lies, constant lies. Vulgarity predominates and at each click on bottoms to satiate our hunger what we get are words to induce as to accept ignominy as normal.

The consequences are there to see. Isolation, depression, sadness that leads to paranoia and conspiracy theories. More and more sad news less and less reasons to be proud of our human race.

Here the question: why are we consuming bad news? Is it so that happiness does not have an audience? Peace and joy don´t sell? Big spectacles in huge venues where thousand of people forget their own festivities to mingle in crowds where nobody has an identity?

Journalists are committed to inform and that they do. Many of them do it responsibly even at the cost of their own lives. Idealism fits in all activities and journalists play serious roles to contribute to building a good and healthy world. However we should question if there is no good news to spread and why so little public attention is given to kind and sweet acts.

If we do our best in our small world and motivate others to do the same then we still get a chance to become ´important news´ and happiness will become our daily source of learning.

The Press is there to help us become better persons. Let´s give reasons for good news to be our daily source of information.

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Behind the smoke curtain

Aren´t you tired, exhausted, fed-up? Every day for a long time now, after thousands of headlines, pictures, words words words that say a lot but in effect mean nothing, horrible people spreading news that makes you feel demotivated, hopeless, over and over again the same angry faces threatening your and everybody else´s life, one day you hear something terrible and just some hours later the same information comes back in front of your eyes and takes hold of your ears, your mind, your heart and it is a continuous flow, an avalanche of new reasons to make you feel impotent to swim against the stream of pessimism and fear for the future.

Every day for a far too loooong time now! Aren´t you completely used up? The same faces, ugly clowns doing the most dangerous tricks and playing war games with your sensitiveness. Bad actors, lousy performance, you know all is nothing but lies and you are sure you won´t be able to see what is behind the thick smoke curtain of the theater where those tragedies are far from any wonderful play by geniuses like Shakespeare, because here the authors are mediocre and cruel and just mean to control your life and manipulate your mind.

Some people have found protection in denial. They just stop reading the news, watching violent films, playing war games. Maybe this attitude brings some relief but most of the time the decision does not last long – for curiosity and the need to know about what is happening even when it is well-known that facts of reality hide behind what is there to read or see.

The show must go on. Must it? Aren´t you tired? How can we turn off all the channels that spread evil and learn how to live in peace? Do you miss John Lennon? He taught us to sing and to Imagine.

History shows, there has always been ups and downs and many moments of discouragement that lead us to ´it´s too much, let me out of this´. But life is dynamic and no matter what, the sun never stopped to come up and share light. Every day trees grow towards the sky, children run around laughing and romantic people walk around embracing and kissing.

Civilizations have started and ended but the strength of hope never died. It won´t die now. It simply resists and help us keep on living.

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Effects of distance

If we ever have the curiosity to search reliable definitions for the term ´distance´ Wikipedia can be a good source of information. As usual this democratic site offers diverse paths of knowledge and the fact that it remains open to contributions from just anyone makes it a base for solid trust. Here when trying to define ´distance´ Wikipedia offers a closer possibility of reaching clarity and good understanding in a language that is accessible to all and reducing the distance between our ignorance and our curiosity.

It is very interesting to know that there are various types of distance! It can be defined considering the domains of Physics and Geometry, like: Euclidean distance, Geographic distance, Geodesic, Statistical distances (Mahalanobis distance, Energy distance), Spatial distances (e.g., Manhattan distance and Chebyshev distance), Measure used in Computer science, (e.g., Levenshstein distance, Hamming distance, Lee distance, Jaro-Winkler distance), but there is a broad spectrum of notions that go beyond the idea of ´distance´ as an objective numerical measurement but rather as a qualitative description of a subjective experience and here we enter the universe of human emotional experiences that can be studied in Psychology, Human geography and the social sciences.

The explanations above just serve as an introduction to what this text is about. We do not belong to the exclusive group of Masters who can measure what concretely exists around the concept of distance. Although Psychology is classified as ´the scientific study of mind and behavior´ our focus is not on the strictly scientific side of this term but on the way we experience distance.

It is not that difficult to use technical methods to understand distance. Maps and all kinds of calculations can furnish enough information when someone wants to know how many unities of a specific measure (e.g., kilometers, miles) are there between places. That´s what calculators are for, right?

But ´distance´ not necessarily relates to how distant people are geographically speaking. When we refer to ´distance´ many times we refer to an emotion, the feeling of ´disconnection´ that can exist independently of geography. Reality proves it.

Of course it is easier to feel ´close´ to people when we live in the same environment. Neighborhood plays a clear role in our proximity possibilities. Even in a world where long-distance contacts are facilitated through the various channels on internet it is very improbable that the intimacy online equals a personal contact. But how wonderful that this alternative exists! It helps to keep families, friends and lovers together. It reduces the missing feeling that sometimes makes life so sad when we are geographically far from those we love.

On the other side... yes... we can feel disconnected from just anyone we meet frequently. Working teams, classmates, neighbors... you name it.

This is a big challenge in our times: how can we keep a good feeling alive despite geography and time of separation? It requires strong motivation, dedication, perseverance and a serious perception of the importance of trying to maintain our presence alive in the other person´s life.

Otherwise our image starts to fade away to a point where there is no more possibility to recognize who was there in that picture we call love. It is really easy to let it go... yes... very easy indeed.

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