Ocean People vs. Lake People

            There are people who love dogs and there are people who love cats.  Rare are the people who love both.  Cat owners will tell you cats are best because they don’t slobber and drool and bark and fart.  They cuddle on your lap, warm and purring as you casually stroke their fur.  But they’re quiet and they’re not needy; they know how to take care of themselves.  Dog people on the other hand will boast about the loyalty and affection of dogs.  They wag their tails and rush to see you when you come home, they poop outside of the house and they love nothing more than being with you, whether you’re strolling the beach or lounging on your couch watching the boob tube. 

            It’s been my experience that just as some people prefer canine to feline, or vice-versa, there are those who will extol the virtues of lakes over oceans, or vice-versa.  Rarely do these people mix. 

            It’s easy to spot a lake person.  In ironic contrast to the quiet peace of the still waters of lakes, they usually attract people who like things loud.  Loud motorcyles.  Loud motorboats.  Loud jet-skis.  Loud music blasting from their loud convertibles.  Loud music blasting from their decks overlooking the water.  Loud and drunken parties into the wee hours.  Loud.

            Ocean people are more about peace.  Quiet.  Serenity.  The ocean itself already provides its own chorus.  The constant murmur of surf on the beach.  Gulls squawking overhead.  Lonesome tones of fog horns out in the mist.  Kids squealing in delight as they jump waves.  Beach parties are more about sipping wine and beer, munching lobster and steamers, bonfires and the gentle strumming of guitars and ukuleles.  People will sit and watch the ocean for hours; it’s never dull, never the same, always in motion, waves and tides, and the ebb and flow of beachgoers.  Solitude for the early risers, watching scurrying sandpipers in the golden reflection of the sunrise on wet sand.  Thronging humanity sunning, frisbeeing, bikiniing, splashing, surfing, during the mid-day hours.  The languid peace of the late afternoon sun, alighting the sky, glowing on the water. 

            Lake people dress in leather chaps and clunky leather boots.  Ocean people paint their toes and wear flip-flops and shell necklaces.  Lake people speed across the water in outboard speed boats, painted in garish colors, with faux flames and racing pinstripes.  Ocean people paddle stand-up paddleboards, windsurf, kite-board, and prefer their boats with white sails and varnished teak wood. 

            As for me, I own both a cat and a dog; I appreciate what each has to offer, though my greatest affection extends to the tongue lapping, tail wagging dog.  I also enjoy visiting the lakes…but I have to live at the ocean.  For me, the ocean is just so much more dynamic.  Always in motion, always changing, never the same from one day to the next.  I love its smell, everything from the salt tanged air, to the methanic aroma of rotting seaweed on the beach after a storm.  I love the tides, how the tidepools I explore amongst exposed rocks at low-tide, will be flooded over for me to snorkel over at high-tide.  My family used to rent a beach cottage every year so that might have something to do with my particular affinity for the sea.  I grew up boating and sailing, snorkeling and surfing.  On the water, in the water, under the water, every day.  In my early days I wanted to be a marine biologist and dive with seals and dolphins ala, Jacques Cousteau.  When my older brother taught me to sail his little O’day Widgeon sloop, I formulated my lifelong dream of owning my own boat and circumnavigating the globe.  When I started surfing as a teenager, that sailing dream expanded into a sailing and surfing dream, sailing across oceans, surfing deserted islands and forgotten stretches of the major continents, meeting native peoples and watching tropical sunsets, strumming my ukulele on the beach with some good friends, sleeping under the stars with a special person who shared my passion for the ocean environment…

            I don’t dislike lakes nor do I begrudge the Harley and Kawasaki people their loud machines on quiet water…but for me, the sea is everything, it’s my life, my blood, my passion, my love…  I think in a former life I must have been a seal or a dolphin; maybe that’s why I have to be close to the water…maybe there’s something in my DNA that is inherently linked to the ocean…all I know for sure is that if I indeed came from the ocean, it is to the ocean I must return, again and again…and when my time on this planet is done, I hope that those who collect my ashes, will spread them over the water at my favorite surf break…my spiritual home…