Wednesday, October 1, 2008

Whose?

I went for a walk on the beach at sunrise today, and there were lots of shells. It changes everyday, sometimes there are lots of fresh see algae, sometimes there are more broken corals, or seaweeds, sometimes there are only a few broken shells. What I do find however without exception is dozens of plastic caps, plastic bags, cans, glasses and many other signs of “civilization” expelled by the sea. Anyway, today there were lots of shells. I picked up a specially pretty one, with an intriguing shape and strong orange colors, then I picked up another one, a green one! I thought there were no green shells! And then I picked up a very unique piece of brain coral. I felt so happy with my three wonderful pieces. But as I continued walking, I thought if I actually should take them home. They don’t belong to me, I reflected, they belong to the sea. I imagined if people took home all the beautiful shells they could find on the sea shore. Then I imagined myself walking on a beach, with no shells. Just with plastic caps and cans. Ouch. I didn’t like that image at all. But then I thought, the sea has enough shells! A few shells that we people can take here and there, what difference can this make!? And another voice inside me replied: to think that there are enough resources in Nature is a commonly held assumption. There are enough fish to overfish, there is enough water, there is enough oil, there is enough….Hm. May be not? I imagined again the beach covered with human junk and no shells, and beautiful shells going into the landfill as people were moving homes and discarding them.
I put them on the sand, and took a picture of them. Then I hesitated to let go these precious findings, but finally I threw them back into the ocean. I felt so light, so good. I took home what was mine, the picture to share with others what is out there, what we don’t own. To each one its own.