Vulnerability

It’s a very vulnerable position to be in. It’s a feeling of falling in the water + not being able to get out. You feel that you are surrounded by water + that you are just falling. You cannot do anything about it. You’re a dead body, so to speak.

There is a nostalgic aspect to it as well, I think → it holds the possibility of erasing everything. You feel very helpless when you are around it or in front of it.

The nostalgia I am talking about is cultural nostalgia. Culturally, I think there is this longing (towards the ocean). A longing to be swallowed by it. The ocean suggests a (possible) disappearance of the human being(s) into it. You see people going into it , far out into it, + you don’t know if and when they are going to come out. You get the sense that you are going in to an environment that makes you vulnerable.

1. First, one could describe it as sublime, in the classical sense (i.e. you feel very small.)
2. Secondly, is the power it has to lift you when you swim. It’s buoyancy.
There is an ecstasy of the thing that can engulf you + charm you + suddenly you become conscious of your own vulnerability.

Humans are very vulnerable at sea. There’s huge Unpredictability: every time there is something that you don’t expect. That’s why the skipper is next to God.

T.v.A. Its vastness. Its colors + smells + earthiness. In Dutch, the word I would use is urkracht → in English it means “primordial force”. An acceptance from within the power of being. I think I felt safety also because of the huge contrast between my fragility and its generosity.