The Allure Of The Beach

The beach has always held some mystical power over people. It has managed for centuries to lure people closer, drawn in by its undeniable magnetic force and the allure of its power. What is it about this place that holds your soul captive? Is it the memorizing sound of the oceans waters rolling in and out lulling you into a place where there is no concept of time? There are no markers of the season or markers of time, and as you stand on the sandy shores in 2011 watching a distant ship you realize you could just as easily be standing here in 1811 watching a distant cargo ship pass.

Maybe the lure comes from the gulls that are oblivious to your presence as they dance and swoop midair like graceful ballerinas in grey and white tutus performing their craft for anyone who takes time to notice or watch their show.

Maybe the magic has something to do with how the sandy shores seems to be softly shifting and changing every day but never really seem to change at the same time. You never really walk on the same land twice, you never touch the same grains of fine white sand twice, you may never even see the same waters as the ocean seems to pour out of its bed and then fall back in again. And as the tide comes roaring in and bleating out softly, the landscape changes with it, creating a new and different shore to walk on. Is that the allure?

But maybe the mythical allure and the magnetic power come from something else. Maybe the power of the beach has something to do with the bounty that comes up from the depths of the ocean with a good storm. Maybe it's seeing the skeletonized bodies of ships ravaged by time and the sea itself, finally surfacing hundreds of years after they sank to their watery grave, cast out onto the sandy shores, as testament to what lies below the dark depths that we can never see until the forces of the sea are ready for us to have back what they have taken and used up.

Maybe the allure is the needed reminder that we are as small and insignificant as the sand that makes up the shore as we stand on the beach, one of seven billion very small people on a very large planet. It doesn't matter if you're the President of the United States or a janitor at a department store when you stand there -- you realize that in the bigger picture you are just a small part of it all.

It can also create serenity to walk the beach, feeling like you're the last person left on Earth, alone with your thoughts in a place that feels forgotten by time. Maybe that's the true allure of the beach for so many people who find themselves pulled there every year, unable to understand fully why they can't resist the lure.

By: Anna Woodward

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