My very first trip to an ocean beach was when I was a pre-teen; my actual age escapes me, but it was to Atlantic City, a fact that I've mentioned before in prior postings. What doesn't escape me is how I felt upon seeing the ocean for the first time and what I (and my brothers) did when we had the chance to run free...it was this sense of wonder, of awe, of something incredible. As soon as we could cajole our mother into allowing us to run free, we made a mad dash across the sand to the edge of the water.
I was thinking about the above as I sat on the beach yesterday.
My days of sprinting in the sand, barefoot mind you, are long gone. What hasn't left though is the sense of awe I get every time I see the ocean. Now, of course, I can at least better understand the feeling,
Funny story from back then: Growing up we didn't eat seafood, well outside of Mrs. Paul's fish sticks. Anyway, the Albert Boys were amazed at clams. We dug up about a dozen of them and brought them back to our hovel of an efficiency unit and left them in the dry sink. Coming back to the hotel room a few hours later we got to experience what dead/rotting clams smelled like. I still don't eat clams by the way.
Back to the present day, and I enjoy sitting on the beach, listening to waves, and thinking back to days gone past, be they with my brothers or my own girls when they were growing up and we'd have beach vacations. These days my beach activities have moved away from digging up clams (and sentencing them to a long death inside a dry sink) and making sand castles with little girls and towards reading and walking along the water line. I do confess though that the thought of one day having grandkids to do things with is appealing. For now, I'll enjoy reading on my Kindle (which is great for reading the bright light, by the way) and the company of my wife.
What do I read? I read about 4-5 self-help/personal improvement books a year. Based on that volume a reasonable person would conclude that I should be in pretty good shape mental health wise. To that point, well, I will offer no opinions either way. The current book is a look at how our unconscious biases about ourselves drive our behavior. It's a pretty good read. I have a physical book with me also...
...that I'll probably get around to start reading before the end of the week. Yeah, I get the criticism: I don't exactly enjoy "light reading", but it works for me. I've never been much of a fiction reader, and at best I've read about a half dozen novels in my lifetime.
As for today, Monday's plans include taking a drive up to the more commercial end of Virginia Beach. Tomorrow with be a trip to Norfolk. The latter makes me think quite a bit about my late brother Chris, as he was stationed at Norfolk for half of his U.S. Navy service. I'll also keep the following thought in mind:
(from THIS site)
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