Well I just got back from the Atlantic. The ocean is pretty special to us land-locked Americans. I will probably only visit the ocean some 20 or 30 odd times in my life. So I treat each time as very special. There's something about the ocean that just makes you think. It is a physical representation of endless, tireless, and life. Not human life, but the big circle of life. So many things come together at the ocean shore. Water, earth, air and fire are all representing in the waves, sand, wind and sun. It is as if the entire shore line is a conjunction of that which made us.
At night the stars light the sky over the waves. For a guy stuck in the middle of the country, it's nearly indescribable how that view feels. For me it made me wonder at the entire universe. Why is here at all... What is this "something" that exists? Is there a "nothing"? So much of it out there.
It was amazing to me to rediscover what just having time to think is like. When you get knocked out of your routine it really opens you up to just think about things. I'm sure I can do more of it even in my routine. I just need to remember that I can afford to spend an hour here or there not thinking about work, house or family--just the enormity of life.
So anyways, what did I do? I sat on a beach on Sulivan's Island, South Carolina just about 5 minutes south of Charleston. We rented a house right on the beach for a week. The kids loved it. They would have stayed in the gentle waves 24x7 if their little bodies would have allowed it. It was the first time my oldest two had ever been on an airplane or seen the ocean. There was much joy. We explored tide pools and beach combed ourselves silly. We collected shells and giggled over hermit crabs. We watch giant freighters cruise in and out of the harbor. We ate on the deck overlooking the ocean every night.
In Charleston we took several tours. While a canned tour would appear to be nothing more than basic tourism, I must say that when the subject matter is significant, even a canned tour is interesting. Charleston was of course one of the central stages of the Civil War. It is amazing to think how much impact this war has even today--150 years later. I don't mean the lasting impact of freed slaves, but the very real impact of lost lives. There is a church in Charleston that had silenced it's bells in rememberance of the lost soldiers. It had not rung those bells in over 100 years of mourning. There is something more to learn about a place when you actually visit it. Even if you don't do anything other than soak up its sights and sounds. Charleston was founded around 1640. It has stood for 400 years. Pretty amazing to think of that. Perhaps not surprising, they are still trying to market slavery as "not all that bad." In 4 tours we were told several times about how much free time slaves had and how they were given land and even how their decendents still live and even work on the plantantions of their ancestors. Of course, none of the own the plantations while several white families continue to announce with pride that they still own their families land. Ahhh, the South. Still it was good to go there and see it. Good to be reminded how significant events can become and how long a notion like racism can last when you're not looking.
Overall, I was most pleased with my vacation. I hope the kids liked it. I hope they remember it as fondly as I remember my own childhood vacations with my family. I never knew how amazing those trips were when I took them. Odd that 20 years later I still look back on them and learn more from them.
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