by Stephen Alexander

Created on: March 20, 2010

Lazy Days

Today proffered a gorgeous afternoon as temperatures crept incrementally upward; it was, hopefully, the first of many especially after such a loathsome winter. The creeping nature of the rise, as opposed to a rapid temperature surge, gave me hope of a sustained escalation. For the first time, I did not feel the overly optimistic fool taking my beach chair out to the shore and plunking down with a book for some long anticipated seaside repose.

The breakers lumbered lazily ashore, their lingering wake lapping languidly at the brownish sand. Above the cresting swells, pelicans gathered in single-file formation. This ostensibly choreographed behavior never ceases to amaze me. The birds skim along the apices of the waves with their barely perceptible movement seemingly defined by the swell beneath them; each bird following the one in front of it but what does the lead bird follow?

These actions are quite obviously instinctual but this knowledge makes this aquatic ballet nonetheless remarkable. The primary bird presumably follows some imperceptible cues given by the rolling wave but what these may be is anybody’s guess. I am sure behaviorists have studied this ad nauseam but I am not familiar with any such studies.

I must say, sitting there with my bare toes luxuriating in the sun-warmed sand, soaking up the still thin rays of the sun, the knowledge that this was only the beginning heartened me immeasurably. The spring has only just commenced; this experience only portends forthcoming lackadaisical behavior as the lazy days stretch out through the summer and into the impending future.

After dark, the pounding of the surf dominated; out by the roadside, the sound of passing traffic increased, not enough to obliterate that of the surf but only to equalize it. Once passed, the roar of the waves once again whelmed the night air. A waxing crescent moon hung low, set and softly lit the mild evening air as I walked to a local eatery. My reflection returned once more to my earlier meditative brood.

As I pondered these seeming imponderables, my thoughts turned to the ongoing health-care reform debate. Will the Right continue to assail young children in their effort to derail legislation? Will the left, as seen by their own actions, attempt to exploit these same youth in an effort to get this behind them? The answers to such questions, in all probability, will loom large in upcoming elections.

Lawmakers, of all stripes, should take long looks at themselves as well as their opponents in answering such queries. Perhaps, they, too, should take advantage of their own imminent lazy days, whatever form they may take, and decide whether the decisive passages on which they are about to embark are in the nation’s best interest, their own or both.

Their response to these self-inquisitions may be the most important of their careers. We can all but hope the response on which they finally agree, be it apologia or otherwise, constitutes concern for country rather than concern for career.

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