Surfing and Creation

I have been surfing quite a lot—or, at least quite a lot for a guy in my niche and time of life. It was a couple of weeks ago when we had a few days with decent waves. It was late in the afternoon. I paddled out at my spot, no one else around in the water, though I could see a bunch of people on the south side of the pier.

I caught a few chest high waves.  The west wind gave the surf good shape and I scooted down the face of the waves, the lip breaking and curling over my back. I felt joy.

When I finished surfing and got to the beach, I picked up a shell. It was then that I saw it.  It was sitting listlessly on the sand next to seaweed. It sat there with people walking by not bothering to pick it up. It looked abandoned and hopeless. It made me sad. I bent down and picked up the plastic bag, which had the name of a chain store on the front. The bag was soggy. I didn’t like how it felt in my hand. But I held on to it and took it to the trash can.

More and more I find plastic scattered on the beach. More and more Jacques Cousteau was correct: “The Sea is the universal sewer.” You may already know this, but somewhere around 8 million metric tons of plastic enter the oceans each year. Plastic enters the oceans as large, identifiable items or as small, unidentifiable pieces. Both the large and small pieces of plastic pose a threat to marine life. Both are ugly lying on the beach.

Like it or not, we are the cause of this problem—we are the only species that produces waste that the earth cannot process. Like it or not, we are the only cure for the problem. Like it or not, I can’t imagine that God is very pleased with the way we are treating creation.

We must learn to put what is right (eliminating single-use plastic bags) before what is convenient or profitable. If we do not take responsibility but kick the can down the road, what will our children or grandchildren discover on the beach?

If we take no action, I think I know what our heirs will find on the beach. Years hence, our grandchildren may finish surfing, get out of the water and walk to their bikes. They will never once step on the sand because there will be a sea of plastic everywhere they look and walk—and they will wonder why we did nothing. They will marvel to think there was a time when a surfer only found one piece of plastic on the beach.