The water, whether it be lake, river, or sea, has a spirit that extends far beyond its edge. On land every frontier has been tamed, settled, and documented for any man to visit physically or virtually as they desire. In contrast the water ferociously resists domestication. While its dry counterpart has become an obedient dog, the waters of the world remain a wolf pack. Horse and machine have made crossing continents little more than a nuisance, but woe to the man who attempts to journey across or under the deep blue without thorough study of the world he is about to enter.
But it is not the wild alone that draws men to shores across the globe. There is a vastness seen in the river long or the ocean deep that renews every visitor with a sense of wonder for the great unknown. It is said there is more known about the stars than the seas, and this is a trophy the water will not give up easily.
Study the coast, and one might think man was at constant war with some underwater dwelling beast. Even if a seaside village did not see a storm for 100 years, if its residents did not combat the destruction of the ocean’s corrosive breath or the beaches’ shifting sands their homes would quickly fall into disrepair. But there never is such a calm. The monstrous sea has a short temper and when it storms and screams it turns the finest of modern man’s construction to rubble.
And what do these thoughts mean to the every-man? After all, many live too far from the water, and traverse upon it so rarely that they have little need for these kinds of meditations. They are not important in themselves but rather on account of what they explain. Man is drawn to drink water because his body needs it for physical nourishment, but man answers the call of the water because its size and ferocity nourishes his spirit with the age old wisdom of his tiny place in the vastness of creation.
~ Written by the Author
The Seven Seas and Me 