“I need the sea because it teaches me”
― Pablo Neruda
Author Arthur C. Clarke once astutely commented “How inappropriate to call this planet Earth when it is quite clearly Ocean,” In 1972, the crew of Apollo 17 were some 29,000 Km from Earth when the photo that has since become the most reproduced image, ever was taken. It became known as The Blue Marble.
Water covers more than 70 per cent of the Earth’s surface. There’s something about water that draws, fascinates us, compels us to stare out to sea, to imagine what lies beyond the horizon, to be immersed. It's not too much of a stretch to believe it's a primal urge to return to the womb, the watery environment in which we are immersed for the first nine months of life.
The colour blue is associated with qualities like calm, openness, depth and wisdom. It is overwhelmingly chosen as the favourite colour of people around the world. What happens when our the brain, our most complex organ, meets what can be described as the planet’s largest organ, the Big Blue.
In their quest to locate life on other planets, NASA employs the 'follow the water' strategy. It seems water is the sine qua non of life, the essential condition.
Edward O. Wilson, a Harvard University biologist, naturalist, and entomologist coined the term “biophilia”, in 1984 book of the same name he uses the term to describe his hypothesis that humans have “ingrained” in our DNA an instinctive bond with nature and the living organisms, a love of life and living systems. Just as we intuitively love our mothers, we call out to nature physically, cognitively, and emotionally.
“Yes, as everyone knows, meditation and water are wedded forever.”
― Herman Melville, Moby-Dick
In recent times, the concept of “mindfulness” has been fully embraced by the mainstream with the advent of smartphone apps such as 'Headspace'. What was once thought of as a fringe practice of Eastern origin is now recognised as having widespread benefits, today, nirvana is downloadable.
Wallace J. Nichols, a marine biologist, and author of Blue Mind: The Surprising Science That Shows How Being Near, In, On, or Under Water Can Make You Happier, Healthier, More Connected, and Better at What You Do, writes that we all have a "blue mind" , "a mildly meditative state characterised by calm, peacefulness, unity, and a sense of general happiness and satisfaction with life in the moment" a state of mind that while we may not be conscious of it, the ocean is thought to induce a mildly meditative state of calm focus and gentle awareness.
“C’mon in boys, the water is fine”
― Delmar O’Donnell, O’ Brother, Where Art Thou?
It’s very possible that increased consumption of omega-3 oils from eating fish and shellfish played a crucial role in the evolution of the human brain.
The aquatic ape hypothesis first proposed by the marine biologist Alister Hardy and later built upon by Elaine Morgan was much derided when first proposed. However, of late, it has achieved a measure of acceptance and come under some serious scrutiny, as demonstrated by David Attenborough in his 2016 two-part radio programme, 'The Waterside Ape' which included recent discovery of growths in the ear in hominid fossils similar to those found today in the ears of individuals from diving cultures or surfers.
The main claims of the theory at some point in prehistory branch of the line of primitive ancestral apes were forced by competition to leave the trees and feed along the coastline. Searching for oysters, mussels, crabs, crayfish and as a result, spent most of their time wading through water and eventually evolving into bipedalism.
Between 5-7 million years ago there was a divergence between the great apes and hominids, during this time significant differences emerged aside from bipedalism and the increase in brain size. Among them are a hooded nose, which prevents water from entering the nostrils. Hairless skin, with the exception of the head which still needed to be shielded from the sun. Primates such as baboons and vervet monkeys which live on the savanna today, have neither lost their hair nor developed an upright posture.
“Catch a wave, and you’re sitting on top of the world”
― The Beach Boys
Surfing is between me and the water, nothing else. The moment the water encloses me, I am gratefully, alone. In some magical, magnetic way I move in the university of the waves, I need the sea because it teaches me. Who hath desired the Sea? - the sight of salt water unbounded.Her excellent loneliness.
