The Sea
I’m extending the concept of Down to Earth to one specific aspect, Water.
“About 71% of the Earth’s surface is water-covered. Water also exists in the air as water vapor, in rivers and lakes, in icecaps and glaciers, in the ground as soil moisture and in aquifers, and even in you and your dog.”
“Water is never still. Thanks to the water cycle, our planet’s supply is constantly moving from one place to another and from one form to another. Things would get stale without the water cycle!”
Consequently, growing up by the sea becomes an essence of your life. The smell, the sound, its beauty. It is always waiting for you, and you always anticipate its presence. Its Constance. Its foreverness.
.
As a child, I ventured out with my father, a fisherman, trawling for prawns. We would go far out to sea where the waves were taller than the trawler. He would tie me to the mast so I would not be washed overboard. The smell of the open sea and the pleasurable consumption of freshly cooked prawns have never left me. Every opportunity to be on the open sea I take. Any excuse for fishing I will take, although I seldom catch anything, but the pleasure of being on the Water is all important. It brings me unparalleled tranquillity.
We also lived by the sea. I would spend many hours walking our 100-mile beach searching for pipis that we would sell to the local bait supplier, who also rented canoes, which we could use in exchange for the bait we collected. The hours and hours of wandering the beach with constant dipping into the surf to catch the waves and being dumped by unforeseen curled waves was total freedom at that age. The time to do as we pleased without any parental limits except to come home before dark. In those days, we wore no shoes, and the sand sweeping between our toes was also our pleasure and fun. Indeed, no worries about tomorrow.
In those days, I achieved my independence and sense of adventure, exploring the rocks and the caves on the rocky shoreline and following the crabs as they patterned across the sand or hid in the rock shelters. I was not yet a teenager.
Today I regularly still visit my hometown of those days and spend many hours wandering its beach still empty if you pick the right time of the day. And, of course, the taste of the saltwater as you throw yourself into the surf. Although the surf seems to have gotten much more robust, it is with some care that I avoid those waves that toss you under repeatedly without giving you time to breathe. Instead, they say you float through it and let yourself be carried to shore. However, I’m unsure of my capacity to continue breathing as the waves crush me further deep. Nevertheless, I find the Water’s taste and thrust still exhilarating, seductive and essential. But, I am more prudent with age.
When I think about it today, I realize how enlightening all my choices have been with Water. Water: near the Water, on the Water, in Water, all essential elements in my well-being.
Participating in the maiden voyage of a new superyacht owned by my nephew from Denmark Lisbon was the ultimate pleasure, the constant rush of the sea. All aspects of the trip were seductive.
The ultimate seduction.
