Morning calm on the sea

This photo snapped from the dock at the Beaufort Inn in Beaufort, NC shows how calm the water can be early in the morning before any wind is stirring.

As we have all seen, the same calm water can turn into a massive engine of destruction given the right conditions.  The Beaufort area is fairly sheltered, but no area is immune to the devastation of a large storm.

Yet for some reason, we humans are drawn to the water.  I absolutely love it at the coast.  Friday I spent a successful morning fishing with Captain Tom Roller of Waterdog Guide Service. We brought home some nice Flounder and Spanish Mackerel. Though it is more than just the bounty of the sea that attracts us to water.

This photo was taken the day before at Emerald Isle beach.  There is no protection there from the Atlantic. The winds had been blowing for a few days so the power of ocean was evident.

The eternal crashing of the waves on the shore perhaps helps us understand that we're just here on earth for a short time.

They also teach us that sooner or later most physical traces of our existence will be washed away just like tracks in the sand.

Perhaps there is some peace in knowing that one way or the other, some of the decisions that we agonize over won't be such a big deal in the grand scheme of things.  It's not a license to ignore responsibility, but a check on trying to carry all the problems of the world on your shoulders.

In that there is more hope than despair, the hope being that we do the best we can as we make our tracks in the sand and trust that there will be others who will follow us, and if we're lucky some of our hard won knowledge might save them from our mistakes and eventually help solve some of the world's great problems.

The cities we've built provide beacons of light at night for ships at sea. If we're lucky they'll continue to provide refuges from the awesome power of the sea.  Though it shouldn't be too hard to draw the conclusion from Hurricane Katrina that we're still at the mercy of the natural world when mother nature chooses to marshal her forces.