Maine: The Ocean

from 11.23.22

The people who live here draw their livelihoods from these waters. They are lobstermen, tour guides, scientists—people who live in relationship to the sea as to a living creature. I am not from the edges of the ocean, and perhaps I have only realized as a young man that she is alive. That she is more than the push and pull of the tides, more than the enormous puddle between me and the places I want to go, the people I want to see. And maybe I am a fool to profess my love, having never been at her mercy. But in the way that young people become infatuated with those they've just met, I am enchanted by the sea, in all her expressions, whether or not she cares for me.