SAD BUT TRUE

I came across this photo the other day and was immediately transported back to the first days of retirement down here on the island I call home. I find the picture charming but also very illuminating to what is ‘going on’ down on that beach today.

The photo is from 2009. You can see the authentic untouched vibe of this special seashore that I like to refer to as ‘Little Beach’. We discovered this piece-of-heaven when we moved into our villa just one and half blocks away. The Professor and I have watched many a sunset, swam with the manatees, toasted to birthdays, and caught up with family, neighbors and friends – all while sitting on that beach, it was truly a sanctuary.

The 2nd photo is of the same beach but made a bit glamorous by the wealthy California girl who built a huge house on the property adjacent to the beach. She was a character and brought colorful characters into the script of the neighborhood. No disrespect shown there.

But today is a much different scene. Cali Cool Girl has since moved on and Mid-West Tyrant Bee Atch Woman has moved in and … gasp… has put up ropes, pillars, ugly yellow streamers, and vile ‘No Trespassing’ signs right down to the water’s edge claiming the beach AS HERS! What? I can’t even… Such contemptuous conduct.  Spiritually speaking this is not a matter of ‘because you can, you do’, it’s clearly a circumstance of ‘even though you can, you never would’.

I am dumbfounded for the first time in a long time. I cannot fathom why anyone would act in that manner. Or would take an aggressive action like that meant to prevent anyone from enjoying the splendor of such a magnificent creation. God created beauty to sustain and fortify us; the humans that He created, the humans He loves.  For one of His humans to demonstrate that kind of ugliness pleases no one.   I don’t care what creed you follow; I am almost certain that there isn’t one of them that would welcome that kind of behavior.

It breaks my heart that money, greed and power have permeated my Little Beach. It was such a place of peace for me, I wrote much prose sitting on her shores.  Over the years, I have spoken to many a native of these parts, ones who grew up living on the island, and they all deemed this little beach to be a special almost sacred place.  I mean, just gaze at the photographs, you see it, don’t you?

I am not sure what comes next, I guess we will just have to wait and see what the Universe has in store.

“For the times they are a-changin’ “

~ Bob Dylan