Nature is present in beach world at every moment. All the artifices that humankind employs cannot deny nature its due. No matter how modern and wonderful a structure built of sticks and wood is, or even if that mansion is made of the newest composites sand will pound the cracks, edges and crevices. Eventually those countless grains will erode the façade enough to create a way in. People tracking in and out of the house will also bring with them the sand from the alley ways, the beach and from the street. Sand is nature at its most elemental.
Moisture is another part of nature that will not be denied in beach world. No matter how efficient the air conditioning the humidity will find its way in too. Any pillow used down at the shore will become a rock within a few weeks. Soaked with sea air those feathers become leaden, it is just the way it is.
If you go out into the ocean you have to risk crab bites, kelp and various sediments thrown at you by the churning waves. It you body surf your snot will mix with the saline water. If you don’t respect the water’s power you will die. ‘Nuff said, swimming can equal death in a rip tide. But once and again you will be greeted with a moment when nature will show you a moment of wonder.
One night when Don and I went for the 25 block each way walk of cosmology, that is we would smoke four or five cigarettes apiece and talk about the meaning of life and what the universe is really composed of. On one of those kinds of nights we saw a once lifetime thing, luminescent jellyfish.
On that moonless night as we walked down the strand the waves seemed to shimmer as they crashed. At first the odd light was very, very faint. But as we walked further the waves grew brighter. There was no natural illumination of the water that night. As wave after wave crashed we had trouble believing our eyes. The Atlantic was glowing.
Don and I walked down toward the water’s edge. As we reached that part of the beach where the waves had already hit and then receded it looked like lightening spreading out in all directions. Faint electrical pulses shot off in every direction from where our feet fell.
We stopped and with our toes gently poked at the sand. There were hundreds of silver dollar sized jelly fish lying in the shallow ¼ inch of water that remained from the last wave. Any pressure on the sand near the jellyfish and they lit up with little lightning strikes heading out in ever directions of their little circular bodies. We stopped and really looked out at the waves hardly trusting our senses. Each time when the waves crashed the jellyfish lit up all down the length of the crest. There was a cool mint green light that spread out as the water rolled and roiled along the shore’s edge.
We had to stop and step back to insure we understood what we were seeing. It was something so unexpected on the Jersey shore that we didn’t believe our own eyes. We didn’t trust our visual sense. We simply had to let nature be what nature would be and let it show us what was true and real.
I don’t know who this fits in with Section 8 of On Caring-Trust. This section focuses on trust. In some ways it might be possible to try and tie trust to our doubts about our experiences that night but it really doesn’t work. I guess in this case the story stand alone. The analysis too stands alone.
Trust is in the way the author first structures his discussion a bit of a misnomer. It is a continuation of knowing and honesty. I trust the other to grow in his or her own way and to make mistakes. Inherently I have certain knowledge that mistakes will be made or divergence from what I view as the path of growth will occur. But if I am honest about growth being the goal I will allow these things to happen.
I must know and have faith that I learn and grow from experience and mistakes. I must be secure in my judgments. If I am always second guessing my choices then my trust in the other to likewise learn and grow will be tentative and tainted. Trust requires I have a sense of balance as to what is an isolated problem and what requires a course correction in the other’s growth.
The other having knowledge that we are allowing this process is liberated to grow. Trusts frees the other to make choices and then to return and discuss the resulting experience and be subject to examination and potentially criticism. Risk and unforeseen consequences may follow but growth requires choices be made and experiences accumulated.
A failure to offer trust, to be overprotective means we are not being responsive to the needs of the other. This stifles growth. If we wish to dictate every course of behavior and outcome we are really trying to protect ourselves from pain and disappointment.
Trust is not an abdication of responsibility. It is not undertaken indiscriminately. We do what we can to insure that the conditions exist where trust is warranted. We offer opportunities to learn and experience but we watch to make sure the other is not unnecessarily at risk in trying to grow. This is a delicate balance.
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