Tsunami

Has anyone else had a tsunami dream lately? While growing up in a coastal town and now living in a coastal town one is keenly aware of the power of the sea. It seeps into your being, your unconscious, and never lets go of its grip. You wade in waters known to be inhabited by sharks. You hear stories through the years of people, including your own father, sucked out to sea through the undertow (fortunately for him that was not his ultimate demise). While the videos of horrific events from Japan unfold on t.v. one can't help but internalize all the emotions that they generate.

When my son was around eleven years old we were walking on Baker Beach, just west of the Golden Gate Bridge, when a rogue wave picked him up and started to drag him into the Pacific Ocean. That moment will be etched in me forever. The sheer terror of watching a helpless child, with panic on his face, drawn into the clutches of a force beyond anyone's control was beyond comprehension. We were able to save him, but he would not go anywhere near bodies of water for years afterward.

I think of that Baker Beach moment, and how lucky we all were with the outcome, when viewing the events in Japan. The worst was seeing a photograph of parents finding the drown body of their teenage daughter in her drivers ed car amongst the tsunami's detritus. How do you go on after that?

The blackness of the tsunami's water was echoed in my dream. What could be more counterintuitive than water that is black?

Ceramic artists are holding an auction called Handmade for Japan to benefit the ceramic artist communities that were damaged by the temblor between Sendai and Tokyo.

My heart goes out to the people of Japan.