"Dust unto Dust...."

Friends:
"Dust unto Dust ... "

Be not dismayed because the delivery of the AJC has bit the dust and will no longer arrive at our front doors ... we have the Brunswick News which provides far superior entertainment, and me, of course, to editorialize. Read on.

We all know the magnetic attraction a beach has, since we live here, but last week it was a stage where two tragic comedies played out. The Brunswick News reported them in pictorial detail. First, a pilot ditched his Bonanza in the surf and swam ashore; and secondly, a "joy ride" by a FLETC student resulted in his SUV, one new police vehicle and 4 tow trucks being mired in the sand, requiring a front¬end loader to extricate them, and all of which destroyed the walkway to the beach. But wait ... ; Only 5 escaped the sand, and the last tow was swallowed up by sand and sea at high tide. Surely someone's to blame for this misadventure, right? Who? What? Arrogance or ignorance?

I have my own thoughts, lest you be disappointed. It was the "joy ride" and the sand that deserves the blame. Heck, we've all been young and students - and students are still learners, like we were once, right? And we all took "joy rides" on the beach growing up ... tricycles, then bikes, the long walks, playing golf by chasing sand crabs with flash lights and broom sticks. As we aged, our "joy rides" morphed into bon fires, roasted marshmallows and hot dogs on coat hangars, ever remembering the tragic result if these edibles got into the sand. And as age would have it, our "joy rides" changed significantly when alcohol supplanted marshmallows, and oh, the fun began, as well as some unintended consequences! But, through it all, the sand always won with vivid reminders, as it were.

A harmless "joy ride" by a Federal Agent trainee - a future keeper of the law, aided and abetted by Glynn County's Finest with the support of Toot-Toot Wrecker Service - provided all the news we needed for the week. Like I said, beaches have their appeal, and "joy rides" of all kinds have their consequences - but the sand always wins! It reminded me of a certain verse:

" ... And on the pedestal these words appear:
"I am Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!"
Nothing beside remains: round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare,
The lone and level sands stretch far away."

The moral? You can supply your own, but as for me, it says that no matter what "joy ride" you take on a beach or in life, the sand always triumphs .... "Dust unto Dust!"


Bud
February 22, 2007