And He rolled back the waters

My husband and I have recently begun a spring ritual of driving up to Popham Beach about 6 each Sunday morning, with a big thermos of coffee in the front seat, and our dog Cody in the back.  We get there about 7, and fast-walk the lone beach till about 8, when people start to appear in ones or twos, usually with dogs. 

Every time we come, we walk toward this little island with the big federal "cottage" on it.  It's always like a dream, a house on its own high island surrounded by water, beckoning but forever beyond, out of reach.   

Until two weeks ago.  On Easter morning, we happened on the island at low tide.  It was like a miracle: a huge swath of sand was suddenly there, as if laid down just for us.  Words welled up from my Sunday-school days of fifty-some years ago: "And He rolled back the waters..."         

We hurried across the beach to the sandbar, walked down it to the kelp-covered rocks, not knowing how long we had before the tide came back in, possibly stranding us. Cody raced in front of us, then turned and lay down in the tide-pools, waiting for us to catch up.  When we got to the rocks forming the main part of the island, my law-abiding husband stopped at the No Trespassing sign.  I ignored it, clambering up the rocks.  But the slippery kelp, plus W.'s reluctance, the approaching tide, and Cody's frustration that he couldn't herd us together, made me finally turn, pick and slide my way carefully back down the slick rocks, and follow them down the sandbar. 

But today, the tide was even lower when we neared the island, and we stayed to the righthand side, where we found a way up with more footholds through the slippery rocks.  I persuaded W. to climb up with me, then pick our way around through prickly rugosa bushes to the "front yard" to take this picture.  Then, deterred by a "No Dogs Allowed!" sign on the porch-railing, we turned back and stepped, sat and slid down the rocks to the beach below.

Two weeks ago, Easter Sunday when we were driving home, there was a reprise of the Easter story on National Public Radio.  God, an angel, Jesus, or some other "He," "rolled back the stone" of the cave where Jesus's body had been, and disciples found the body gone.  I realized that that was where I'd gotten that morning's words, "And He rolled back the waters."  Or it could have been, too, the story of Moses parting the Red Sea.

It reminded me how pervasive the myths of the dominant culture are, how I still carry them around in my subconscious beneath my adult agnosticism.  When I see something that triggers the "holy" feelings of childhood Sunday school, the awe and gratitude of a sudden sandbar leading to the fairy-tale house of my dreams, the words of those Sunday school stories flood back.  Some superior "He" breaks through my feminism and parts the waters for me and my family Easter morning.                  

Comments

[joared]

I find your house most intriguing. Does anyone ever actually live there?
The photos were marvelous. As usual, the words you wrote brought the scenes to life.

I think whatever belief systems we have been exposed to as children linger with us in one way or another throughout our lives, even if we have totally rejected many or all of the ideas. Memories from our childhood sometimes have a way of surfacing when we least expect them.

For some, while they may be somewhat removed from childhood belief systems, as with so much encountered in life, they have extracted some thoughts that are meaningful. I think it's much like reading, I take from a writer's words what resonates with me. As with all writing, time, place, other factors mediate what resonates.

Seems natural as an adult that we would remember the more dramatic stories we heard in childhood. They do have a way, as do actual childhood experiences, of staying imbedded in our memories for better or worse. We each make peace with them in our own way.

Only recently, I recall hearing or reading something to the effect the parting of the red sea actually could have happened based on special natural circumstances. Can't remember how it was explained, tides(?) coupled with some sort of unique environmental circumstances. You were able to have a similar experience first hand.

Not unusual for people to give cause and effect interpretations linking human behavior and nature's happenings. We seem to come by that naturally in our pursuit of logical explanations, just as many of us are also quick to anthropomorphize our pets, inanimate objects.

Believe some of our ancestors were quite frightened by eclipses of the sun, attributing this to some sort of warning, or other-type signal from a power stronger than they. We often seem not to have evolved too far from our ancestors. Haven't yet read any of the links to your referential weblogs, so perhaps you address these issues there.

I'm not much for literal translations of so many stories others interpret in that manner. Instead, I often find the significance and value of some of the stories to be in an overall concept illustrated by the actual story event.

Similarly, the pronoun so frequently used to describe deities is not bothersome, if it were not for the fact that so many give literal translation to it, also. So much occured, or was written, when the dominant culture was paternal, so seems only natural to me their stories/writing or whatever, would reflect that perspective. That doesn't mean I don't want to clarify that point with others in our world today. Seems just about everything is simply a matter of perspective.

[Terri]

What a great post and I felt I was right there with you. Oh, the mystery of that house! Do you have any idea who lives there? And is it only accessible via boat for the owners?
It's a gorgeous home and the epitome of New England. Guess it's safe to say that whoever lives there craves the isolation that island must give them.

[ml]

Joared: Thanks for your bountiful comments and keen insight here, as always. I want to respond to your comment about the male pronoun for deities here in this public forum, because it might clear up something I've heard others complain of feminism being too picky about. I agree with you that the male pronoun describing deities is not particularly bothersome to any reasoning adult. We all know how to take these things symbolically, if we have to. However, children take things literally. So that pronoun can compromise a little girl's self-esteem. I well remember struggling with the concept of the superior being being male, and "man" being made in God's image, and thus envying my brothers when I was growing up. I wondered where these concepts left me, my mother, my sister, and my girlfriends. The way I made "sense" of it, I'm afraid, was to internalize a generalized sense of inferiority to males. The commonality of such feelings in young girls is why feminism insisted on neutralizing these value-laden pronouns, a practice that can seem cumbersome, nit-picky, and unnecessary - until we think of kids and how they learn.
And Terri: this house is what's known here as a summer "cottage" - the big coastal houses, usually not winterized and perched on rocks or cliffs so that they can't have basements, that are only lived in for short stints in summer. And yes, this house is only accessible by boat.
Maine is filled with islands like this, many of them with lone or hidden "cottages." At least one island we've sailed by in Casco Bay has a helicopter pad for the owner to land on.

[Terri]

Having attended parochial school for 8 years I had plenty of time to contemplate that made in "mans" image too and balked at it even from a young age. Made no sense to me....and as an adult, Catholicism makes even less sense. So I totally agree on the usage of pronouns...to some it might be insignificant, but for the female gender I feel it's paramount.
Yeah, there's plenty of money on those little deserted Maine islands. Ah well...somebody has to live that life.

[joared]

I hear what is being said about language learning in small children; certainly respect that process as it is presently understood. Perhaps some of the disagreement over the issues of pronoun usage, or comprehension of "man" in some contexts as applying only to males, has to do with how those terms are introduced to a child, how a child's questions about those terms might be answered by adults.

I do think different religions may present those matters differently. As we can see from this dialogue, different adults interpret it differently. Perhaps it is important for some to have this clarification of terms made, but may not, necessarily, be a universal issue, which could account for the rejection of those issues by even some feminists.

I think groups sometimes drift into in-fighting over issues which are better viewed from a different perspective than either/or. Unfortunately, what happens is, these issues distract from their larger, much more important message which undermines their primary goals, effects broader acceptance by the very individuals they wish to attract because of these different truths, and even their credibility with the general public may be adversely influenced.

That's just my humble opinion and how it all looks from some of my childhood language-meaning learning experiences which seem to have been different from those I'm reading here. :-) Interesting how it affected some of my interpretations on broader issues as an adult.

Can't leave here without saying once again, how much I enjoyed your descriptive writing, the pictures you shared, the symbolism and meaning of your experience. Thank you, ML!

[Jamie Lau]

As I know, in the Middle ages, people usually think in a symbolical way. A medieval christian, when confronted with natural objects or images of natural objects, for example, pictures of fish, birds, and trees, automatically tried to find Christian religious significance in them by associating them with key remarks in the Bible--just as you in this situation. You must felt special in this case cause modern people in contrast, usually think representationally, that is a picture of a fish or a bird just make us think about the real fish and birds in the world. I guess this representational perspective is responsible for modern painting skill, impressionism something like that.. by the way, happy to see your blog and really like your style.