Calm

C.G. Its immensity + its calm, the calm (of surface). At least that’s how it seems to me, always, when I encounter the ocean: it is calm. It is infinitely accepting. Not acceptance in its anthropomorphic sense but literally. Not a form of kindness, but the absorption of everything that comes in contact with it.

M.B.For me, the threshold appears mostly when the ocean is still: then there is an amazing velocity. In its viscosity too, the still ocean is something else, like jelly.This transitional moment of the surface marks something that fascinates me :

When at sea, you have to figure out how to stay alive. Never start a dispute with the sea – you’ll always lose. If the weather is bad – you’ll have no more money. You make a deal with the sea, → respect the sea be very “low”/calm – don’t try to challenge it. If there is no other way, you have to do it. Let the sea do the work.

I remember loving the feeling of touching the sea or having it around me. Back then, I was not afraid of it. But then again, my parents only took me when it was docile + warm. That was the Belgian sea, of course. It was the only sea I saw for a really long time. I had to turn 20 before seeing another sea. (This is without counting Lake Como, in Italy.)

I remember taking the mailboat from here to Dover with my mother. We used to take it every year. For shopping. The journey is about four hours each way. It was my mother’s idea of going to England. We would only go if sea was calm, of course. Before the trip, my father would look out of the window in the early morning to assess the weather.

T.v.A No, the sea was always very smooth if that’s how it would start out in the mornings. Here, there are no storms in the summer.

I spent some time in the Shetland Islands in Scotland. To get from mainland Shetland to Fair Isle you either take a boat, which is called The Good Shepherd, or a plane. I became very seasick when I took that boat. That was strange because the water was calm. The waves crush the cliffs all the time so there’s an almost invisible current.