Non-cooperation of the elements
One of the simultaneously beautiful and frustrating aspects of surfing is we are beholden to the elements. When there is no swell, there are no waves. You can’t manufacture waves at will.
I love this about Nature. She breaks the fallacy of man’s dominion over nature every time.
I have been writing about and considering the human impulse for superiority and domination for a while now. Goodness knows I have been very skilled at practising my superior card over the course of my life. I reflect upon this: where does this impulse to project superiority over others come from?
As a child, I was a bookish nerd. I was also the kid who put her hand up anytime the teacher asked a question because I did have an answer. My cognitive intelligence – the type of intelligence that makes you good at academic things like maths and science but not necessarily intelligent about social or life skills – was sharp. Yet it was my cognitive intelligence strength that made me fragile. Any time I felt out of my depth from a cognitively intelligent point of view, I felt small and inferior. Any time I felt I was across the subject matter, my superiority aspect became evident.
I wanted to be noticed. I wanted to be special. I wanted these things because I didn’t yet have enoughness in my being. I still held fragments of not good enough.
On occasion to this day, my ‘superiority’ aspect rears her head. Like Nature and the waves, more often than not, I trip, stumble, or get caught out almost simultaneously to this aspect of self emerging. I end up with a metaphorical egg on my face. This is a good thing. Universe whiplashes me back to humility.
During this time in Sri Lanka, I have been confronted with many people who walk the earth as if they are the chosen people, superior to everyone else and all things. It has been hard to be present to.
Yet, as I know Nature and her laws, there will be a whiplash of humility. Not on my timeline, not as I may like to see it, but as it will be—the wheels of time, Karma, and justice at play.
We are all brought to our knees so we can know the true meaning of the gift of life.
I am grateful for this lesson.
Photo Taken August 25th 2024
