Sand Castle By The Sea

It was a bright and sunny day without a cloud in the sky. The beach was deserted except for the family with the small happy pre-school boy playing next with his shovel and bucket at the shore building what kids always build a sand castle. His little imagination had populated the castle with knights on their horses, damsels who admired them, and of course a handsome king and beautiful queen. The little boy was amazed at the story spinning in his head as it was exactly what he wanted it to be. It was a beautiful day and he was king of the castle.

Turning away he began to wade out into the ocean and that was really fun too. The water passed his ankles and then was up to his knees. Indeed he was a big boy now and he turned again toward the shore and took a last look at his parents lounging on the seaside. He was was growing large with each step out to sea. Soon he was a young man swimming and feeling the strength of a powerful strong arms and legs that could pull him across the waves. Deeper Still.

Things felt right and natural out in the sea and he knew he was made for swimming and really no longer even thought too much of his parents on the shore. The adventure that held his focus was farther out into the sea and he continued to swim. He continued to grow older with each stroke and in time the calm sea began to show the rough waves that precede a storm. Dark clouds arose and his arms began to feel fatigued. He had been swimming a long time now and had turned into a middle aged man. His young limbs were no longer young and to make matters worse the waves were giving strong resistance to his strokes but still he knew the only way to where he must go was farther out to see where it was deeper still. Deeper Still. Deeper Still.



Ohmygosh! Sharks! Lots of Sharks. In fear he swam away but they were much faster and he was to be their dinner meal and that was all but a certainty. He was in their territory and an adventure into the deep had been his goal so now he found himself to be the very goal and desire of the school of sharks.

Pain! These were real sharks with not the first shadow of compassion in their cold blooded bites.

They pulled him down. Deeper Still. Thousands of them now and he was their desire. He would be shared as a bloody dinner delight. Arms, legs, feet all the subjects of greedy teethy sharp chomps. It was natural for sharks and just what they do. It was just another day for them of feasting on what they found for feasting. Sharks do not have second thoughts about ripping apart the bodies of flesh they find. It is what they were made to do and they do it without hesitation. It is simply COLD and BURNS it is so COLD. It is NOT Human At ALL.

Totally eaten the pain was gone for the little boy become man. What next. Well nothing as he was gone. You can't have a next when you are not there to go forward. No more strokes. No more fatigued. No more Sharks to fear or fight. Sharks had shot their teeth-bullets right into him until he was blasted away into squat and fully eaten. "He" was now shark or sharks himself. Once he both feared and fled their fierceness and now he was the energy source for their cold heartless activity. They needed him to attack others like him.

Shark crap. You ever BEEN shark crap? It is less than nothing but still sorta something. Could there be anything more humble than shark crap? Who would have ever set as their goal in life to BE shark crap. Well this is certainly a long way from the shore and the beautiful Castle of his young dreams. Shark crap sinks to the very bottom of it all and there it falls on the GROUND at the BOTTOM and well becomes the bottom. What ya going to do? Sharks are not interested in the Bottom and really nothing and no one seems to be focused on it at all. The Bottom Ground is simply not interesting. No one puts their attention

Cold currents blow and MOVE about the bottom and drive its broken parts about and eventually they are in the rolling surf and onto the shore. There to be picked up by small chubby hands and put into the bucket and poured onto the next level of the growing castle where the Child is King. There they are king.

Over TIME big big waves crash upon the shore and overwhelm the castle and all is ruined. RUINED! All the time and effort and best dreams of the child dashed! All the form and beauty of the well placed sand ALL crashed and gone and flattened to the GROUND. One might think it was useless and purposeless and depressive as an exercise in futility at best.

BUT, HOWEVER, and in a surprising UNEXPECTED- THEN- then the child remembers that THEY had gone to the beach together and looks up to see his father and mother with outstretched arms. Oh yes,- home. Home was NOT the beach, NOT the castle,waves or sharks. Embraced by his father and seeing mother smile it was NOW-TIME to go home . They walked all the way home on the GROUND and in the evening they lay down upon the GROUND and dreamed dreams of castles, and waves, and sharks and adventures with knights and damsels and children and parents and home.

And scary,painful, joyful, meaningful dreams they were! They were dreams of meaning not at all boreing like the GROUND. They were dreams of the secret swimmer who swims ever into another day.