Why it's okay to hate beaches

Heather
Originally uploaded by mchughtie.

It is a quiet whiteness, water and sand, sand and water, interacting indefinitely. The beach is a sensory underload, a stretch of rehab beige awaiting the imprint of your ass as you formulate what you might do when you are done doing nothing at the beach. No, you think, defending the picnickers, showboats and metal-hounds who make their way to the shore daily, it is wonderful to spread your agenda across the blank canvas of a beautiful beach, to unwrap your foiled hot dog, to lay out your towel and fry. But if you hate that, it's okay too, because the world you know ends at the edge of the sand. The lesson, you already knew it, that there is nothing in the world to do, slaps along the sand, telling you over and over again that you don't have to find happiness in beauty if you don't feel like it.