Ocean

Today was a beach day.  A perfect beach day.  I am talking 85 degrees, full sunshine, a slight breeze.  Our chosen beach was expansive enough to not seem crowded despite the perfection of the day.  We arrived shortly after noon and immediately slathered sunscreen on our northern skin.  (Well, first, we cracked open our beers, of course.)  And then we stared at the blue-green liquid in front of us.  For several hours.  By the time we packed up to leave, we were serene and recharged, both at the same time.  The glow has yet to wear off, and it's now four hours later.  Am I in love with the ocean? Ya think?

So I'm thinking of people who have never seen the ocean.  Truth be told, despite having grown up in New Jersey, I never saw the ocean until I was twenty.  My parents just weren't beach people, I guess.  I would listen to stories told by friends who spent a week in Wildwood or Point Pleasant or Asbury Park, and I would have to imagine what all of it looked like.  My imagination could not prepare me for what I finally got to see when I visited Ocean City with college friends so many years later.  I have probably not missed seeing the ocean at least once a year since then.

But what about those who have never seen it, Atlantic or Pacific?  What do their imaginations tell them?  There's a short novel that I love, Ellen Foster, by Kaye Gibbons.  At one point, Ellen, who is being cared for by her wicked grandmother, ponders whether her grandmother has ever stood before the ocean.  If she had, Ellen reasons, she would understand her place in the world and she would not be so mean.  I think Ellen nailed it.  It's not too much different from staring at a starry sky on a clear night.  One considers one's place in the Universe.  I suppose the difference is that the ocean is here on earth and real, while that starry canopy is so far away, it becomes dreamlike.  Standing in front of the ocean does not allow one to dismiss its power, its beauty, or its immediacy.

So what does that mean for those who have never seen it?

I stood in front of the ocean today and I considered my place in the Universe.  At this point in my life, I am somewhat at peace with my choices, my joys and my sorrows.  I tossed my gratitude out to the sea, thanking her for the perspective.  And then I assured her I would be back, because the lessons of the sea must be repeated as often as possible.

Hopefully, tomorrow.