The Lewd Angel

peanut butter mine

Duuuuuude.....I finished my essay. OMG I am so proud of myself. Here it is if you want to read it but do not make fun of me or critisize it cus I will cry.

There is a well known saying on Prince Edward Island that an Islander always comes home. There is truth in this saying. People move away for the same reasons that anyone leaves their small hometown; education, employment and social opportunities are limited. However the reasons that we feel an ache to return are entirely unique. While I cannot pretend to have the ability to explain this phenomenon entirely in a neat little package of words, please allow me to tell you a little bit about the ocean.

Anyone who has been to the ocean is familiar with the way it smells. Often, when I am missing home I will close my eyes, imagine myself at the shore and take a deep breathe in. But the air I take is always hopelessly insufficient. Ocean air is somehow fresher, more vital. When I take my first breaths on P.E.I. I am always mystified that all that time away I had even been breathing at all.

The sound of the ocean is well and lovely too. It has been recorded and sold many times over for its peaceful properties. The rhythm of waves punctuated by the occasional squawk of gulls is a sound most people are familiar with even if only artificially.

The tactile qualities of the ocean are not understood as well as well by mainlanders. Tourists are delighted to feel the water gently lapping over their feet when they walk along the shore or the waves bobbing their whole bodies up and down but do not understand the power of the undertow as well as Islanders. We all know someone the ocean has swallowed and are wary of its power.

Lastly and perhaps most importantly is the way the ocean wets the air. I cannot keep my hair straight or my clothes dry at night. This may sound unpleasant but I think it is perhaps the most important thing to mention because in this way the ocean makes itself known to you even when you are far from the shore.  An Islander’s appreciation of the ocean is much more than an appreciation of the sites and smells it presents. The sites and smells are merely reminders of something even greater.

Man has claimed and shaped the world around him but the ocean remains a wild thing. It is the presence of this wild thing that truly affects Islanders. The wind blows off the Atlantic and tempers the attitudes we have on life. Every day we are reminded of our place in the world and the limits of man. I have often heard urbanites describe maritimers as “nicer” than mainlanders but I don’t believe this to be true. The difference between a maritimer and mainlander is in our ability to enjoy ourselves. Blessed with an innate understanding of our place in the world, we are free not to take ourselves too seriously and do not become preoccupied with appearances or achievements in the way that city folk do. Living in a city, an Islander is doomed to feel the stranglehold that man has placed over his environment and most of all his own heart. This is why an Islander always comes home. 

Thursday, September 25, 2008