Just Add Water
On the surface, it’s simple – no pun intended: I am a wave in the ocean. I began my life when wind and ocean came together, and maybe there was even love involved. I will wander the ocean until my death, either by exhaustion or by finding the shore. Such is life for us waves.
But, you sea, this answers nothing. Who am I, really? Who am I truly, deep down? What is my purpose in life? What is my place in the universe, what is my contribution? Where should I go? Do I follow everybody else, or do I choose a diverging path, as far as the currents permit me? Does it even matter? Does anything I do matter? Will anybody remember me? I’m just a drop of water in the sea, after all.
Am I reaching my full potential? How do I become a better wave? How do I make sure I am the best I could be? Sometimes I feel stuck on this, dead in the water. Have I come far enough for a wave my age? What are other waves my age doing? I’m afraid they are further ahead, taller, more forceful, maybe even just better waves. Making a splash instead of going with the flow. Some of them are immense, strong, heroic, something I can never be. Sometimes, I hate them. Then I hate myself for being so small-minded. Yes, I know, cry me a river.
There’s a whole ocean beneath us. We like to ignore it, because it is scary and unknowable and deeper than comprehension can understand. It’s death – waves cannot exist in the deep. But somehow, it’s also life – we could not exist without it. Some say, the Deep holds the answers. Some pray to it. Most try to forget about it. In our daily lives, it really doesn’t matter (except that it underpins everything). It makes me feel small, and irrelevant. It reminds me that the boundary between and my fellow waves is really, uhm, fluid. In our daily lives, we speak of “I” and “you”, when in truth the separation is much less clear than we’d like to believe.
What’s a wave to do?