The Sea

Sunday 9.00am

I love the sea. Or rather I love the seaside, the coast. I have lived in various places but always seem to end up near or at the coast. It feels right somehow. I think it is because I like to know where I am in space. When I enter a building or an apartment or room the first thing I usually do is look out of a window, again to pinpoint where I am in the surroundings. And it is the same with the coastline - the sea is over there, the land is over here, and so I am here positioned relative to them. I feel secure knowing where I am, having a touchstone if you like.

But the sea itself is a different matter, I have no wish to be on it. I like to have my feet on the ground. Splashing around at the beach is ok but as you go further out, the shallows of the continental shelf that the the land sits on eventually drop away and the deep ocean begins. And the thought that I could be suspended there in the ocean with an unknown vastness beneath me containing who knows what, - that I find scary. It is an echo from childhood I think of that fear when getting into bed that there may be monsters at the bottom so you cannot slide your feet down. It is funny isn't it how these things remain with us into adulthood, lying hidden just beneath the surface and yet affecting our daily lives in subtle ways.

Life is never dull when you have childhood fears.