A day on the beach

We spent a few days at Hilton Head island recently, and I was reminded of the parable of the man who builds his house on the sand. That man, having built his house on the sand, found that when the storms came his house collapsed as the sand was washed away by the storm. Sand does not make a firm foundation. The day we drove over to Hilton Head from Atlanta was rainy and by the time we arrived it had cooled after the rain. It also was quite windy. The next day we went down to the beach and attempted to plant a beach umbrella in the sand. While the wind wasn't quite as bad as I imagine the raging storms to have been in Jesus' parable, it was still very windy; not quite like sitting in a sand storm but not exactly what you have in mind by the phrase 'a day at the beach' either. The umbrella, having no firm foundation, kept trying to blow away. We were able to keep it in place by sitting right next to it and holding onto it, but that was not exactly convenient. It just wasn't the kind of day at the beach we had imagined.

Now, I am not all that fond of the beach anyway. I'd rather be in the mountains than at the beach, but the beach is ok from time to time, in limited doses. I sunburn easily and don't really like being on the beach outside of the morning or evening for a walk. Being there to get wind-burned in addition to sunburned just adds to my overall negative viewpoint about the beach.

Still it was a reminder of lessons to be learned. As we left and saw the traffic jam headed onto the island I was reminded of how we seem to long for the beach despite the issues of being there. To me Hilton Head, in spite of the many awards for careful development, is too crowded and overbuilt. Since we had been there before the weekend, I was glad to be leaving as the crowd arrived. That crowd, though, wants to be at the beach! Seeing the dolphins swim by, eating the seafood, even spending a little (emphasis on 'little') time on the beach all have their appeal, even to me at times. My roots, though, just are not there. Like the umbrella, when the wind blows, I am ready to leave!