“Stay a while,” he said, “Stay a day, or a week or a year. Stay a while, Arie.”
I stayed. And although I drove off two weeks later, I never really left. I never really left a lot of places. I’m everywhere.
When I'm not studying Biblical Scriptures in some dusty university library, I am a merchant sailor, and have been for two decades.
I've ran fruit from Central America to Europe, general cargo and containers from Europe to the Far East and Australia, supplies to North Sea rigs, and passengers on festive circles in Alaska, the Caribbean, Mexico and Hawaii.
I've been everywhere; I've seen everything. I've survived hurricanes, mutinies, pirates, fires, loneliness, insanity, drunkenness.
Whores were my neighbors; stars my kin.
I've seen the sea, snapping her jaws at me. I've seen her every move - inside of me, as she glared through the weeping windows on the evening watch.
Een zeeman is gewend te sterven.
Other work:
Abarim Publications, which started as a collection of studies on the parallels between nuclear physics and ancient Hebrew Scriptures. Lately it's been expanded with articles on Biblical topics that nobody else thought of. Especially the Biblical name part of this site somewhat of a succes: http://www.abarim-publications.com/Meaning.
Scripture Theory Blog; the companion blog of Abarim Publications.
Cross On Me - A Novel (to be published entirely on line, sometime in the summer of 2011).
Groeten Aan Nederland, (in Dutch); a collection of references to the Netherlands found abroad.
Quanta; My hobby blog, full of nonsense, tips on blogging and more nonsense.
Contact me for all your donations, job offers, Pulitzer nominations and writing assignments via arie at abarim-publications dot com
