9.4.2002
9.04.02"Excavations in the ancient city of Ephesus on the coast of Turkey have uncovered a colonnaded marble road from the harbor where distinguished visitors in Roman times could make a triumphal entry after landing. The point of debarkation is now over a mile from the sea."
Waves and Beaches
-Willard BascomThe sea and land perform a dance that continually alters the places where they meet. The sea adds sand to a coastline, filling in bays here, straightening shorelines there. The sea breaks down rocky cliffs then oblique currents carry the resultant sand away, leaving less land in its place.
Wind waves begin with wind over calm seas -- surface tension is created by the wind and ripples form. The sides of these small waves catch more wind and the waves grow -- absorbing the energy of the wind. The velocity of the wind, the duration of time the wind is blowing, and the extent of open area the wind is blowing over (fetch) all determine the size of waves.
The actual sea is much more confused than this. There are counteracting winds, old seas, tides, friction applied to air whose turbulence creates new wave action.
Over distance, small waves become larger, that is, their period and their height increase until a point at which the sea is as big as it can be given the velocity of the wind. Increasing the fetch or lengthening the amount of time the wind blows cannot create higher waves. This is a fully developed sea.
There are limits. It's good to know that about waves. A wave will break when it reaches a ratio of 1:7 - height to length.
Of course, sometimes those limits are beyond human capacity to survive. Joseph Conrad in Typhoon describes it like this:
"It was something formidable and swift, like the sudden smashing of a vial of wrath...This is the disintegrating power of a great wind: it isolates one from one's kind."
I've felt that way paddling out through mild shorebreak. Some days I feel that way just contemplating whether or not to answer the telephone.
Today I watch the small bay waves push a berm of sand beachward. A juvenile double-crested cormorant swallows a little fish pulled out of the sea grasses and shakes the water off its head. Most seas are not fully developed. Most seas come in peace and take no lives, content to move a little sand today, and a little bit more tomorrow.
posted by Lisa Thompson 10:33 PM
9.3.2002
9.04.02I've worked a long day and though I have much to say, don't have energy to say much.
I will share one of my favorite William Stafford poems, though:
Representing Far Places
In the canoe wilderness branches wait for winter;
every leaf concentrates; a drop from the paddle falls.
Up through water at the dip of a falling leaf
to the sky's drop of light or the smell of another star
fish in the lake leap arcs of realization,
hard fins prying out from the dark below.Often in society when the talk turns witty
you think of that place, and can't polarize at all:
it would be a kind of treason. The land fans in your head
canyon by canyon; steep roads diverge.
Representing far places you stand in the room,
all that you know merely a weight in the weather.It is all right to be simply the way you have to be,
among contradictory ridges in some crescendo of knowing.-stafford
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I can't write like that. Not many can. He's the best poet I know.
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Check out this new blog by Ken Thompson: Brooklyn Memories. He's collecting and telling stories about Brooklyn. The inaugural memory is a sweet story about kite-flying and an unexpected friendship back in a time "when being an elevator operator was a skill job". I like it a lot.
posted by Lisa Thompson 9:22 PM
9.2.2002
9.2.02Today I urge everyone within earshot to add their voice to the gathering opposition to Bush's war. Move On is collecting signatures and statements to be presented to Senators. On August 28th, they hand-delivered same to Senate offices around the country. Our representatives need support if they are to stand up to Bush and his cronies. They are more likely to act if they know they have the people's say.
As politicians from Scowcroft, Kissinger, Feinstein and Leahy, to world leaders such as Nelson Mandela speak out, it is imperative that we, the american people, speak out also. Silence is a mandate of its own.
I hope that Colin Powell publicly voices his opposition to this catostrophic idea soon.If you'd like to write a personal letter to the President, here's his address:
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500
posted by Lisa Thompson 7:56 PM
