The Oceans Within

I drove along the Pacific Highway today. I pulled over. I walked the beach.

The vastness of the ocean was less impressive than my sudden realization that we see nothing of what is within.

Beneath the waving waters is the world of aquatic beings. Dolphins. Whales. Fishes of all kinds.

Each with its own consciousness. Semi-consciousness. Or -- thankfully -- the halflight of a being barely known, pursuing the seminal needs of existence.

Freud considered the subconscious an oceanic expanse below our living threshold, controlling our emotions, our very soul.

Once in while, a rupture breaks through, and the placid expanse of the sea is disturbed. Love, hate, the classic affects of life reach up beyond their domain, and seize us by the throat, asking -- nay, demanding -- our attention.

But as we go about our lives, driving toward points unknown, the oceans churn ceaselessly below.

Who are we who sail these seas?

Nothing, but human.