The Cape

It is, really, nothing more than a very large pile of sand, resting on the remnants of the last great ice age. It was thrown hard against the rocky New England coast, placed there by the wind, the currents, the tides, the storms, and by the hand of God.

Its form eventually came to resemble the position the human arm assumes when flexed to display the muscles, complete with  clenched fist and contorted wrist.  It has, they tell us, enjoyed this orientation for about 18,000 years.

Nauset Beach - on a slow day

Those same voices also tell us that in some thousands of years hence, this huge sand hill will cease to exist despite any human effort to alter the inevitable whim of nature.  The same powerful forces that created it, will one day take it away, completely.

Everyone has, or should have, their own “special place” -  a place of serenity and beauty, possessing rejuvenating powers.  It is that place you can actually go to – to renew the self.  This place I have described, this special place - my special place - is Cape Cod.

This portrait, however, utterly neglects what the essence of the Cape is in our lives today.  For in the vast “in between,” it is gloriously ours, to visit, explore, use, enjoy, and to fall in love with.  There is nothing the human spirit requires that cannot be furnished by the Cape.

Pochet Inlet, looking to Nauset Beach and the Atlantic Ocean

Above and beyond the “things” one can do or see at the Cape, there resides the essence of the Cape. It is about how it makes you feel - how it nourishes the psyche, and makes you whole again.  It is the aura, the mystique, that possesses you the moment you actually cross the Bourne (or Sagamore) bridge, and put toes to sand.  The bridge is your portal.  It is not unlike the passage through Platform 9-3/4 at King’s Cross Station.  Once done, you are transported and transformed.  You are now in your magical space, your very own alter world.

Wonderfully, there are indeed times when what you “do” and what you “feel” actually meet.  Watch the sun rise. Take your sandals off, and walk the National Seashore - for miles and miles.  Breathe deeply the air. Allow it to take away the troubles your body holds prisoner.  Let the wind take your kite far away, and send with it all the worries of your heart.   Eat lobster, in any form you love it - with wine of course.  Stay with the sun as it ever so slowly slides beneath the waves, with the promise to return again. 

 "plein air" artist at Wychmere Harbor

A friend of mine has a special place she calls her own.  It is the Outer Banks of North Carolina, and to get there, she must cross her bridge, one she calls “the best bridge ever.” That bridge is named Emerald Isle, a name perfectly suited to its purpose -  and once there, she too is transformed.  Once there, she is whole again, and alive.  As she so eloquently says in five words what I have tried to convey with many, “I could live there forever.”  Amen!

So, if you don’t have a special place, find one -  mountain or sea, desert or city, lake or countryside.  You will not be complete without it. 

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PS..a rather unique feature of the Cape I must mention…just to give you an idea of how different, quirky, and special it really is.  Rt. 28 runs from the start of the Cape to Orleans.  It is labeled Rt. 28 North or Rt. 28 South.  And yet, you can be driving on Rt. 28 north and your car compass will show you are heading west.  You can be on Rt. 28 south and your compass will tell you that you are heading north.  And this is before you have had any wine at all.

Mark Twain Quote:  “Men and women – even man and wife are foreigners.  Each has reserves that the other cannot enter into, nor understand.”