BACKGROUND
We are all searching for something or someone to believe in. Sitting by the ocean, I found something to believe in. Out of that experience came the idea for Planet Restart.
Sitting by the ocean gives you a sense of the immensity of nature and also its fragility. You can look out beyond the waves to the earth's curve while the morning tide deposits the flotsam and jetsam of civilization at your feet. A nor'easter can move mountains of sand in a single night. A rising sea can slowly overtake islands and coasts over the course of decades.
Sitting by the ocean leaves you mesmerized by the waves lapping against the shore in the same rhythm that soothed us in the womb. Their sound was the first thing heard on earth and will probably be the last thing heard before the sun novas out.
Sitting by the ocean connects you to the deep past. Stay for an hour, a day, a week, a month, a lifetime and the rhythm of the tides will never vary. Only the gods have longer memories, and the sea has outlasted more than a few of those.
Sitting by the ocean forces you to accept the indifference of nature to the fate of the living things it nurtures. What happens to clams or men is of no concern to the sea. It gives us life; it is up to us what we make of it.
Sitting by the ocean makes you think of generations to come as you listen to the squeals of delight from children as they try to outrun the waves that nip at their heels. You know right then and there that you would do whatever you could to protect them from the dangers that you as a parent know are out there.
Sitting by the ocean teaches you to see and feel the changing world around you. The beach is calm even as storms are forming far out at sea, beyond the horizon line. But nature plays fair, sending mackerel skies ahead of the storm to let us know that a sea change is coming. Such signs are all around us. You just have to know where to look.
Welcome to Planet Restart.
