Another battle with the fog this morning. From what I can tell by watching local fog activity over the last couple of years, the Dana Strand is the foggiest of all the beaches in Dana Point and San Clemente. The fog almost always clears up here last. Doheny is the least foggy. Also of the last three summers, we have had the most fog this summer. Isn’t that fascinating? No?

The fog did look like it was starting to head out around 9:45 but I thought I’d wait a bit for the full sunshine effect. At 10:30 I got tired of waiting and left.

Heading up hwy 1 you could see the fog bank sitting on top of the North Dana Point and Laguna Niguel hills. After you round the bend just past the Lantern District and end up on the straight away towards Selva Rd., it felt more cloudy but things were moving in the right direction.

Walking down the stairs, I could see the funicular car moving on its tracks. It was still “closed” but perhaps that part has finally come in from Katmandu and they are finally going to repair this thing.

Surf is definitely down a notch or two from Monday. It’s yellow flag and I’m not sure why.

I’d say the water is a touch cooler than Monday but it is still very comfortable and it felt like it got warmer as the swim progressed. I’m not sure if that is the water or me.

Super nice swim. My mind felt relaxed. I’ve been listening to this interesting book about the physics and neuroscience of time called Your Brain is a Time Machine. On the drive to the beach, the author talks about this linguist and ex-missionary who encountered an indigenous culture in the Amazon (Brazil not Seattle) called the Piraha. They have a way of life that is hyper centered on the present. They have no language for expressing history. They are a very happy people. By eliminating any emphasis on past and future, they are also able to eliminate a slew of emotions that drag us into darker places (fear, worry, regret, etc).

Interestingly Daniel Everett, the ex-missionary, lost his faith by interacting with this tribe. They could not understand his claims about Jesus if he had never met Jesus himself. The Jesus story was received as totally irrelevant to this culture. They are absorbed with the daily tasks of survival and not concerned by concepts concerning things that are not right in front of them. Anyways I am thinking about this tribe and what it must be like to have no social framework around past and future.

As the swim proceeds it is getting sunnier, and by the time I finish, those clouds are much further off shore than they were when I began.

The Full Sunshine Effect

Mr. Marley

Exercise in Futility