There exists an ocean that began at the
beginning of human life that flows through time to the present. It is
invisible; but, like the ocean, it consists of waves that rise and fall.
Sometimes a wave, coming in from far away in the past, overtakes another and
moves forward into the present. And so
it was one day for the Stephens family.
Life in Seattle was becoming much too
hectic from when they first moved there fifteen years ago. Wendy and Dylan were
really looking forward to a three-week vacation in the San Juans with their
teenage son, Kes, their teenage daughter, Nirvana, and their eleven-year-old
son, Tarot. Having both passed through their own mid‑life crisis, Wendy
and Dylan were feeling pleased and somehow amazed that they were still together
in this age of divorce.
You know how it is when you suddenly wake
up and realize that you are really quite different than the you that you
thought you were. Fortunately you have not metamorphosized into Kafka beetle
for this new-you looks about the same in the mirror. Maybe a few more wrinkles
and yet this new older you is unmistakably different than the younger you that
you thought you were. Even more terrifying than this realization is that the
person you have been married to for over twenty years is completely different
also. Wendy and Dylan somehow survived it all. Maybe the fact that they were
still best friends allowed them to rekindle their love for each other.
Having boarded the ferry to Friday Harbor
in the San Juans and sent their teens off to buy some fish and chips at the
cafe on the ferry, it is almost with tears in their eyes that Wendy and Dylan
look across at each other. How complicated everyday life in this world has become.
Somehow it never used to be this way. All that was behind them now as the ferry
swished past the craggy sea mountains of the San Juan Islands that were peeking
out from the water, as seagulls chased after the ferry hoping for handouts.
In our so‑called present, we often
travel back to the past. Sometimes we are medieval kings and queens, jesters
and actors, knights and princesses. At other times we are in Egypt as great
pharaohs or teachers. All of it seems so real. Actually every famous person
does exist within us like some sort of mystical DNA. This is what makes history
so valuable because it contains the signposts to this timeless ocean that
connects us all where no one is greater than another. To access the knowledge
of some famous person like Einstein, DaVinci, or Buddha or some person who
never achieved fame, but who influenced maybe only a few others, we need only
to connect ourselves to this ocean.
"What a power spot this feels
like," says Wendy with her eyes full of wonder.
"Yes, I was just thinking how this
place seems like the kind of place where the first sea creatures climbed onto
the land," Dylan replies. "I've always felt that the sea somehow
possessed all knowledge like the answer to my childhood question of how we came
to exist out of nothing."
"I'm sure when the day comes that we
are smart enough to communicate with the whales and dolphins we will find out
that they already know all the answers."
Just then the three children came back with
their trays of fish and chips talking excitedly. They had looked at the map of
the San Juan Islands while they were waiting in line and saw written on it the
words "Magnetic Disturbance".
"Do you think the San Juans are like
the Bermuda Triangle?" asks Kes.
"After all there are three major
Islands in sort of a triangle with Orcas on the top, Lopez on the right, and
San Juan on the left."
"Wouldn't it be wonderful if we could
go back in time," says Nirvana. "But," she hastily adds, I don't
want to be kidnapped by aliens." Nirvana's favorite stories are the Wizard
of Oz, the Labyrinth, and Alice in Wonderland.
