by Stephen Alexander

Created on: March 28, 2010   Last Updated: March 30, 2010

Revisit the Wind

Over the past twenty-four hour period, a cold front swept across the mid-Atlantic seaboard, accompanied by a return to the daunting winds of a couple of weeks ago. Along with the formidable wind activity, was a correspondingly turbulent upheaval of the ocean waters. The surging seas rose and fell in eight to ten foot swells, apparently astonishing even the clusters of seagulls and terns courageously standing out on the beach.

These conditions must have the local surfing community licking their chops but I have yet to see any of these daring the cold to get at the higher breakers. Presumably, the temperatures, which plummeted twenty-five to thirty degrees from the low-seventies just yesterday to the mid-forties today, are at issue here; I know they certainly dissuade me from facing the frigid waters. Back in California, by this time of year, I usually had already braved the sea since at least Valentine’s Day.

This is not to say blustery weather is unheard here by the sea. Quite the contrary, the wind is an irreplaceable natural partner along with the pounding surf in the constant makeover of the ever-shifting sands. The wind provides a welcome service to the surging seas as well as combining with same to scour the winter-debris laden beaches and the ocean bottom. These benefits engender a begrudging respect for the wind despite any inconvenience associated with it.

Perhaps, in the wake of health-insurance reform passage, it is time for Americans to reconsider the winds of change sweeping this country. Not since the passage of legislation protecting civil-rights and providing seniors with Medicare, has America had to deal with such monumental social changes. Just as those new laws precipitated a new, more compassionate way of contemplating our fellow citizens, so, too, does this new statute demand a fresh look at our co-travelers over the somewhat tumultuous seas, which our ship-of-state.must traverse.

Only by looking squarely at those whom opponents to health-care insurance reform would like to marginalize, will we be able to recognize ourselves as well as our loved ones in these unfortunate’s lives and their attendant problems. Perchance then, we will acknowledge that the vagaries of life can often turn on us in unexpected ways, sometimes in ways only the most affluent and fortunate among us are able to withstand without life-altering consequence.

It should not take an encounter with the less fortunate to turn our minds in a more empathetic direction. In fact, each of us should be thankful to be healthy; if healthy, we may be, for most of us are only simple misfortunes away from the complete collapse of our carefully constructed reality. The stormy sea that is life may sometimes require risky navigation, which we may be unable to negotiate without the magnanimity of strangers.

Learn more about this author, Stephen Alexander.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.