To the Beach
As a kid, I used to hate the beach. I hated how I felt after getting out of the water, all salty and sticky and grimy. Sand would get stuck everywhere and it was always so hot and I just felt dirty and sweaty and miserable. It's been a gradual change over the last decade or so, but I can say that I love the beach now. I've been to quite a few in my life: Rehoboth Beach, Delaware; Kiawah Island, South Carolina; Amelia Island, Florida; St. John's and St. Thomas Islands; Fort Bragg, California; Cape May, New Jersey; Ocean City Maryland; and Ocean City New Jersey. Each one has a special place in my heart and while I remember some more clearly than others and have deeper memories with some more than the rest, I don't know if I can pick a favorite. In some ways, they're all connected, literally and figuratively. They represent summer in its purest form; just salt and sand and sky. Friends and family gathered together for a day, a weekend, a few weeks...There's a sense of safety about the beach, despite the fact that awful things can happen there, like people drowning and getting attacked by sharks. Isn't it strange that a place of such possible danger can feel like such a sanctuary? I guess that's just human nature. We don't fear the things that happen all the time, like car crashes and heart attacks and drowning, but we fear plane crashes and burglaries, which happen much more infrequently. But that is not the point of this post at all.
The point is that the things that used to bother me about the beach--feeling dirty and sweaty--are things that I overlook now. You're supposed to get dirty and sweaty at the beach. And I think I actually kind of like it now. We spend so much time inside, being sterile in our air conditioned offices, hospitals, schools, homes, that it's nice to just get outside and feel how the earth is supposed to feel, all loose and messy and chaotic. Not to mention the fact that the beach is the perfect place for people like me who like watching other people. It warms my people-watching heart to see so many different people all together in the same place, enjoying the same thing. To see so many people being happy. That is rare, my friends. It is rare and it is beautiful, and I think that is why I love the beach. I couldn't see it before, as a child, but the ocean is where people go to go back. Back to simpler, easier times; uncomplicated, peaceful lives. Back to the beginning.
The point is that the things that used to bother me about the beach--feeling dirty and sweaty--are things that I overlook now. You're supposed to get dirty and sweaty at the beach. And I think I actually kind of like it now. We spend so much time inside, being sterile in our air conditioned offices, hospitals, schools, homes, that it's nice to just get outside and feel how the earth is supposed to feel, all loose and messy and chaotic. Not to mention the fact that the beach is the perfect place for people like me who like watching other people. It warms my people-watching heart to see so many different people all together in the same place, enjoying the same thing. To see so many people being happy. That is rare, my friends. It is rare and it is beautiful, and I think that is why I love the beach. I couldn't see it before, as a child, but the ocean is where people go to go back. Back to simpler, easier times; uncomplicated, peaceful lives. Back to the beginning.
Day 1204 Song Recommendation: "RIVA" by Klingande.
Day 1205 Song Recommendation: "Conqueror" by AURORA.
Day 1206 Song Recommendation: "If I Lose Myself" by OneRepublic.
Day 1207 Song Recommendation: "Seaside" by Haux.
-SE Wagner
Day 1205 Song Recommendation: "Conqueror" by AURORA.
Day 1206 Song Recommendation: "If I Lose Myself" by OneRepublic.
Day 1207 Song Recommendation: "Seaside" by Haux.
-SE Wagner
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