After an afternoon at the beach with lots of rowing, swimming, and water polo frisbee, we boarded the Kon-Tiki to watch the full moon on the water. Sitting on the back of the boat in the dark with only the ripples immediately around you illuminated, there's this weird "oasis" effect. You can clearly see the arcs of water moving away from you and increasing in area as they do so, but there comes a point--for me it was about 20 yards out--where your eyes fool you, or maybe the water does, where you think the water is building and it seems like a wave that's readying itself to break over you. If you stare into this anomaly long enough, you can get lost in it, much like a case of snow blindness in wintertime. In both instances you lose the true horizon and begin to feel pulled by unseen forces toward some false reality. It was odd, but not in an unsettling sort of way, more like that illusionary moment when you're stopped at a railroad crossing waiting for the train to pass when you forget whether it's you in motion or the long line of boxcars before you.
If you've ever stared into a mirror for a solid five minutes you know the kind of thing I'm talking about. For when you quit seeing yourself you start to see the person others see when they look at you. You honestly--with patience and practice--have no idea who you are.
Maybe all these effects are just reset buttons for our psyche. Perhaps they help us clear out the clutter and wipe clean the chalkboard of all the inner scramblings we no longer need.
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