In “The Marginal World” from The Edge of the Sea, Rachel Carson focuses not on the land and not on the sea, but where they meet: the shore. She sees this place as a “fairy world” and an “ancient world” and notes its “toughness and vitality.” The shore is continuous; it has been around as long as there has been land and sea.
The shore has been one of the only constants in my life. Every year around Independence Day, my family goes down to our beach place in Bethany Beach. Every. Single. Year. I have never been anywhere else on July fourth—even when my mom was pregnant with me. It is a tradition that I hold onto as changes threaten to take it away from me.
The memories of my childhood are precious to me. I fondly remember sitting in the sand building sand castles or walking along the shore trying to dig up sand crabs. I would sit and wait for the tide to come up and spot the bubbles rising from the sand indicating that one of those little creatures was burying into the sand. I would scramble to snatch them and then place them in a bucket. Nowadays, I look forward to having all my sisters and my dad sitting on the sand or floating in the ocean. All of us there together. As we have gotten older, my dad realizes how special this time is; he knows that one day it will not happen. In the back of my head I know it too, but I decide to ignore that fact. I am in denial that the tradition will face alterations.
As the years have gone by, my sisters and I have grown up and moved away from home. New family members have been introduced as others have passed away. I do not like this change. My sisters now have full time jobs and in-laws to visit that can threaten to take them away from Bethany on the Fourth of July. If my oldest sister even considers going to see her husband’s family, I get upset. Seriously, tears stream down my face as I aggressively tell her that her idea is unacceptable. I think it scares my family a little bit. My nostalgia for my childhood has such a tight grip on me that I keep such a tight grip on traditions. Traditions are important for many people, but for me it is something more and my family tries to respect that. If they are considering skipping the beach trip, they have to break it to me calmly and they are nervous. I am a force to be reckoned with. I have taken it upon myself to make sure everything stays the same during those couple of days in July.
When I finally get to the beach, I feel a sigh of relief. It is like coming home from a long trip. I do not want to lose that feeling of satisfaction that comes when all the puzzle pieces come together to create the picture of us sitting on the shore soaking up the sun.
The shore is always there, even though the ocean and the land can change. And just as the shore is where the land and sea meet, the shore is where my family meets and that endures.
Oh The Places Carolyn Can Go 