When anniversaries must be celebrated in economic downturns, the celebrants should perish the thought of considering pricey options like staying in Seaside. From slumping oil prices and home values to disappearing paychecks and savings accounts--these signs of the times all require scaling back of personal economies. Seaside, you may recall, is the idyllic town where parts of the movie The Truman Show were filmed. Lunch at Bud and Alley's in Seaside and a long walk sufficed to help two celebrants this past week put a few things in perspective.
First of all, celebrants of twenty-nine years of marriage find it satisfying enough to watch someone else put his or her life/limbs at risk, catching the wind to ride the waves. We can be there, up in the air, in our minds, fighting ennui right along with whoever that is, taking chances. And our wings of wax will remain intact.
Secondly, fruitless job searches do not steal joy from celebrants in search of secret passages through dunes.
And, finally, signs in secret passages remind celebrants that nature has a way of breathing new life into old problems. If "time keeps on slipping into the future," then life should get better and better, or so we have been told, as long as we watch our steps and keep our noses to the grindstone.
Watching your step requires lowering your gaze.
Lowered eyes usually find treasures abounding in the woods and on nature trails. Cladina evansii may be one of the few secrets Florida has left, so this celebrant will keep a valuable CO2 exchanger's specific whereabouts a mystery. It's a delicate lichen which is easy to pick up and tempting to take home. There are no roots keeping it earthbound, and it is light and small enough to put several specimens in a pocket. Conscience and respect for nature/others keep this visitor (celebrant) from cramming her pockets full of these goodies. If you Google "CO2 exchange," you may find that other kinds of minds are hard at work trading futures for dreams of substantial wealth. And those dreams could leave the rest of us life-celebrants with nothing more substantial than the air that we breathe.
"Tea leaves thwart those who court catastrophe,
