The tide rolls out having engulfed the beach, sucking in sand, cigarette butts, plastic bottle tops and discarded clothing from last night's lovers in the sand.
The sea will accept these things or it won't.
It cuts both ways.
Sand builds bars while reducing the beach.
Cigarettes are swallowed so fish can eat them, grow sick and die.
Plastic kills most everything it floats near in the water ... in multiple ways and the most gruesome of fashions.
Panties, bras, briefs and boxers roll around the ocean floor collecting sand and living things until the motion wears them down.
Thankfully, the tide also rolls in bringing some of these things back as sand is spit back to the beach.
Cigarette butts are neatly lined at the high water mark for volunteers to pick up or to be swallowed again by the sea.
Bottle caps and plastic are far less common to be washed back as they are eaten, mistaken for common food.
Dirty underwear rests there too, now drying in the sun.
Such is erosion on the beach.
Such is erosion in life ... friendships come and go ... mean unpleasantness is stomached and spit out ... after being discarded by trusted ones you are picked up by the unexpected ... and sooner or later in life, each of our secrets are laid bare for all to see.
Yesterday a friend of mine was treated horribly and called out for help. It was mean and unexpected leaving him hurt and angry. Then his adversary, or Satan in its original language, called and said it was a mistake. He was needed after all. Would he please just pretend it did't happen?
It's funny stuff ... the give and take of life ... what people do to one another ... the constant dance of drunks and thieves with the Holy and Pius ... the haves and the have not's ... Sinners and Saints ... the ascending and the fallen.
I stand with my feet in the ocean a lot. Staring out into the magnificence of the sea, turning my back on all of the things people do to one another so I can keep believing in better things like ... righteousness ... good ... equality ... acceptance ... purity.
Then I turn around and see how far we've fallen.
