Blue Water: Born a Pisces, Poseidon Has Always Been My God

By Peter Hunt

Blue Water
NEARLY TWO DECADES AFTER a young-onset Parkinson’s disease diagnosis, Peter Hunt discovers more to smile about every day as he searches for meaning in life’s daily routine. According to Hunt, happiness is a choice, a coping tool to help humankind deal with pain and discomfort. He contends that when considered with an open heart and leveraged with the genuine kindness of helping others, even partial meaning can unlock a divine joy of presence that overshadows most human suffering. Using this recipe for living, Hunt uncovers fragments of meaning in the most unusual—and often amusing—places. Insightful and inspiring, Blue Water’s 100 vignettes illustrate how great life can be, not despite or because of suffering, but in nature’s reassuring acknowledgment of pain as essential to humanity.

Praise
It takes humility, courage, perseverance and an exceptionally strong spirit to transform suffering into something meaningful, fulfilling and even advantageous in life. -From the Foreword by Mike McCastle

Life’s challenges often lead us to self-pity and negativity. I met Pete Hunt long ago in the unforgiving and often stressful realm of naval aviation. Nothing I encountered through 34 years in that world begins to compare with Pete’s everyday life in his now decades-long fight with Parkinson’s disease. His determination to embrace joy, despite a steadily worsening condition, is genuinely inspiring, as is evidenced in these seemingly unrelated stories. As you read Blue Water, you’ll see he’s actually stitched together for us the small windows of clarity that help him make sense of and ultimately cope with his reality. -Joe Kuzmick, Rear Admiral, USN (retired). Currently, Joe Kuzmick chairs peer advisory boards for Seattle area CEOs and senior executives with Vistage Worldwide, the world’s leading executive membership organization.

About the Author
PETER HUNT was born in New York and spent six years of his childhood in Athens, Greece. During college summers, Hunt participated in five diving expeditions to the Mount Everest of shipwrecks, the Andrea Doria, before graduating from Brown University in 1985 and joining the U.S. Navy. As an A-6 Intruder attack pilot, Hunt completed three deployments during ten years of active duty, including 45 combat missions during Operation Desert Storm. After leaving the Navy, Hunt flew for United Airlines until a 2005 Parkinson’s diagnosis at age 43. Peter Hunt is married with two adult children and one grandchild, holds a University of Washington master’s degree, and is the author of Angles of Attack, Setting the Hook, The Lost Intruder, and Beyond Identity.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Peter Hunt
• Release date: Sep 28, 2023
• ISBN: 9798215222263

Peter Hunt

Born in New York, Peter Hunt spent six years of his childhood in Athens, Greece, where he started diving in 1978. Hunt worked on several wreck diving boats based out of New York during high school and college, including the Wahoo, from which he made 13 dives to the Andrea Doria in 1983 and 1984. After graduating with a history degree from Brown University, Hunt joined the navy and trained as an A-6 Intruder attack pilot. During his naval service, he completed three aircraft carrier deployments to the Persian Gulf, Indian Ocean, and Western Pacific over ten years of active duty, earning the Distinguished Flying Cross and three Air Medals. Hunt went on to fly for United Airlines until being diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in 2005 at age 43. That is when his writing began in earnest. Peter Hunt holds a master’s degree from the University of Washington, is the father of two adult children, and lives with his wife on Whidbey Island. He is the author of Angles of Attack, Setting the Hook, and The Lost Intruder.

Book preview

Contents

Foreword

Preface Blue Water

Introduction

Chapter One: As it Must Be

Ruined Warrior

Reflections

Peacock

Climbing Trees

Short Takes

Morning

Sweet Pride

Roots

Persona

Humbled (Again)

Empathy's Quiet Respect

Change

Brain Fog

Trauma

The Perfect Time

Naked Truth

CHAPTER TWO: STUCK

So, This is How It's Going to Be

Breakwater

Freedom

Dawn

Radical Acceptance

Serving Up Ritual

Round Two (Or was that 200?)

Groceries

Liberation

Watching the Garbage Truck

Fair Well, Old Friend…

Ambushed

Fortuitous Circumstance—A PD Update

CHAPTER THREE: UNCONDITIONAL LOVE

The Alchemy of Kindness

On Parenting: The Rare Mercy of Vague Memory

A Tired Man's Dream

Barren Wisdom

Strength Happens

Courageous Kindness

Returning to Port

Coexisting Realities

Humility's Gentle Grace

Loverly

Clever Grace

The Final Odyssey

CHAPTER four: shared moments

Tyrannic Anxiety

Purgatory's Jewel

Hubris of Meaning

Skirting Finality

Enduring Depths

Heartless Distraction

Stuck

Attachment

Tribe

Reflections

And Loving It

Life's Details

CHAPTER FIVE: Love always wins

My Nemesis, the Woodpecker

Contrived Distortion

A Child's Love

Enduring Intentions

My Father

Simple Things

Just Like a Big Boy

Preparing to Land

Delightfully Depressed

A Friend of the Strangest Sort

Life is Hard

Creation

CHAPTER SIX: Everywhere you look

Why the Smile?

Melancholy's Dark Anthem

A Curious Power

Yoga's Graceful Surrender

Let's Play

Hummingbird

Unspoken Secrets of the Soul

New Life

And Life Goes On…

Being

Peaceful Surrender

Looking Good

CHAPTER SEVEN: Content in the knowledge

You Only Live Once

Imaginative Surrender

Dental Floss

Reconciliation

Life's Grandest Question

Comeback

Freedom in this World

A Precarious Trail

Home

Freedom of this World

Dead Easy

In the Land of Walmart

CHAPTER EIGHT: The hard way

The Hard Way

Here to Play

In Shared Humanity

The Brutal Language of Necessity

Without Reservation or Apology

She is My Mother

Happy to Be Wrong

A Supreme Freedom

Cold Comfort

The Empowered Choice

Yoga

The New, Old Me

A Misplaced Power

Life's Eternal Bargain

Afterword:Reflections Worth Considering

ABout the Author

Foreword

By Mike McCastle

We humans are resilient creatures, capable of pushing our limits to achieve the unthinkable. But if I learned one thing from my late father, it is that true happiness lies not in overcoming pain and hardship, but in accepting them as part of life. Through exploring our own limitations and finding ways to move past them, we can learn to appreciate the fullness of life despite the inevitable suffering bestowed upon us all.

As a Navy veteran, world record setting endurance athlete and sports performance coach, I have dedicated the last two decades of my life to not only exploring depths of my potential through seemingly impossible physical feats, but by also helping to unlock the same reservoirs of human potential in others, elevating them to greater heights of performance—from elite athletes and military teams to world renowned mountaineers and explorers. In my own way, I transform pain into purpose for causes I am deeply connected to, like Parkinson’s Disease awareness and veteran mental health issues. It takes humility, courage, perseverance and an exceptionally strong spirit to transform suffering into something meaningful, fulfilling and even advantageous in life. Whenever I contemplate these rare qualities, one person always stands out in my mind. . . none other than Peter Hunt.

Meeting and speaking with Peter is like a long, summer stroll with a kindred spirit. Like my late father, Peter was diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease—a neurological disorder most commonly characterized by uncontrollable tremors and stiffness that progressively worsens over time. I was introduced to Peter by a dear mutual friend in 2015 while stationed in Oak Harbor, Washington. At the same time, I had just broken the world record for the ‘Most Pull-ups in 24 Hours’ (5,804 repetitions while wearing a 30lb. pack) for a veteran non-profit, and I was training to climb a 20-foot rope until I reached the vertical equivalent of Mount Everest (29,029 feet) to raise funds in support of Parkinson’s Disease research and resources through The Michael J. Fox Foundation.

The first thing I noticed about Peter was his calm yet buoyant demeanor and contagious optimism. It was a familiar presence, similar to that of my father; the composure of a man who went through hell and came out the other side stronger than the demons who led him there. Then, after learning about his distinguished career as an A6 Intruder attack pilot, legendary diving expeditions and battle with the same disease my father fought, I can say that there is no one better positioned to lay down a framework for finding joy and meaning in everyday life, sometimes in the least likely of places.

Peter has an unyielding grit, inner peace and contentment about him that can only be acquired from years of taking risks, falling and rising again despite the odds against him. As our friendship has grown over the years, I’ve learned many lessons from Peter through his writings and daily life. Most of all, Peter is proof that pain and discomfort can be used as a tool to help us reach our full potential. By utilizing it wisely, we can rise above our obstacles, unlocking the key to finding true joy which is amplified in service to others. I learned that we are not defined by our trials in life. Instead we are called to rise above them in service to a cause greater than ourselves.

Peter’s words, as written in this book, will lead you to discover that happiness is a choice—something we have control over. We must decide to take on life’s challenges and strive for the greater good, even in the face of adversity or misfortune. It’s not easy, but it can be done. Joy and suffering are not mutually exclusive when approached through the lens of presence and kindness. Through courage and determination, we can reach greater heights and find true happiness. So embrace your struggles and accept them as a part of life—the rewards are worth it. That is the reassuring truth of humanity which serves the fabric in which Peter has masterfully weaved the pages of this book.

Preface Blue Water

June 7, 2023

The sea has been my life's central line of consistency, a colorful ally in my stumble through day-to-day existence. From my lifelong hobby, scuba diving, to my first real job as a Navy A-6 Intruder aircraft carrier pilot, to where I choose to live in the present, the ocean's influence on my life has been nothing short of prodigious.

Growing up in Greece, I basked in the revelation of the unknown, mesmerized by the ocean's enigmatic obscurity. I spent hundreds of hours spearfishing, seesawing between the excitement of the hunt and the abject terror of that first kick beyond the visible bottom, fresh adolescent eyes waiting for a jaw-snapping creature to hurtle up from the darkness. This confluence of daring and a child's baseless fear still drives me to that place today, fully engaged in the moment and experiencing life unfiltered.

While military flight training appealed to my adolescent mind, the notion of launching from a ship thousands of miles out to sea—with nowhere else to land—compelled me to join the Navy. Called blue water operations, or Ops, the lack of choices in an emergency could terrify to incapacity or elicit the inspired audacity to snap to and embrace the worst-case scenario. The sea was my ham-fisted ally, ready to kill in a monstrous hug, a friend who, despite her unforgiving nature, would back me up as long as I gave the day everything I had and, if need be, more.

Only by traveling outside routine can an experience be meaningful. Without risk or suffering, life's journey will inevitably fall short. Avoiding regret at the end of life requires authenticity, the courageous revocation of everything life offers in a split-second decision to do things the hard way, not for a different outcome but because this is where truth resides, lying naked, exposed at the razor's edge of control.

Parkinson's disease is undoubtedly the most positive development in my life. It challenges me with wild ferocity, never letting up, forcing me to respond from beyond my comfort zone daily. Approaching life with the same tenacious determination, not to beat the ailment, but to fight through pain's distraction, is a harsh but accurate description of true freedom. I don't know why we suffer, but I am confident that accepting the experience as neither good nor bad, but just as something that is, provides the space to revel in the esoteric freedom of unknowing.

The ocean is raw and unrefined, an intemperate partner to retain for life's journey. There is no societal stigma or complex cultural etiquette on the seas. One is free to be. Listen to the waves break with your heart and feel your way to clarity. Go for it.

Born a Pisces, Poseidon has always been my god.

Introduction

Everyone has their demons, struggles that test a person’s grit in the rawest of terms. My demon of the last eighteen years has been Parkinson’s disease (PD). As we stumble through life’s labyrinth, if one pauses long enough to listen to the silence, it becomes apparent that even with our vast differences in understanding of the world, we are all searching for the same thing: an Odyssey-like adventure of personal meaning. Parkinson’s pushes me out of my comfort zone, making me consider the world differently. In the manner of the ancient philosophers, PD is both blessing and a curse. A blessing in that my demon has shown his face to me, and I no longer have to guess at the nature of what will likely be the final trial of my life; a curse because PD is still a progressive, incurable neurologic condition. I expect Parkinson’s to continue providing a steady stream of pain, discomfort, and anxiety until I die. But that is okay: we all will die—this is life’s only indisputable fact.

How we live our lives matters. Our response to everyday events directly impacts whether we end life at relative peace, content, and fulfilled. Our reaction to what life throws our way determines whether we can leverage our suffering to allow for a glimpse of meaning, maybe not enough to fully understand why we are here, but sufficient insight to add purpose to our lives.

Transmuting life’s hardships into joy is an awesome power, and it is available to us all. Despite what my mother told me as a child, I am not special. I came to these conclusions not because of some quasi-religious ritual, but instead because I set out decades earlier to discover who I am on the most fundamental level. It has been a long, difficult road filled with retreats of frustrating pain, but the path has fortified me with an energy and inner strength not foreseen in my wildest dreams. My journey describes more than a characteristic of life transcending death. The long, hard slog has unearthed powerful tools that go beyond conventional belief.

I can’t quantify how many times, whether it is while breathlessly scrambling up a steep slope, swimming in the frigid