There’s a disturbing lull hanging in the air, a quiet that you can’t quite to shake. The dulled pink and sea foam green buildings have taken on an air of disappointment and neglect. The sun is shining, but the air remains frigid; a beach town in the dead of winter. What was once a commercial paradise now holds the scenery of a terrifying nightmare. From the sea shelled carpets of lobbies, to the desolate docks out back, there seems to be an empty promise of life with the return of warm weather. Is this what we expect of the world around us? To create a city that only thrives to satisfy our seasonal needs? Exemplifying commercial and material desires are entire cities left abandoned for a majority of the year.
The income of an entire town based solely on cheap novelties purchased by seasonal tourists, creates an economy that not only survives off of specific seasons but one that thrives on the exploitation of convenience. Driving down the waterfront there is a vast array of the same stores. Town names spray painted across t-shirts, towels, Frisbees, bags, cups and any other assortment of beach “necessities” that come to mind. Cheaply made and manufactured for the sole purpose of bringing in more tourists with knock-off advertisement. When the winter rolls in and the tourists roll out, you’re left with massive rates of unemployment and wasted realty. These stores cannot afford to be open without the vast influx of summer tourists.
Now let’s ignore the low-quality stores and cut-rate gifts you purchase on the boardwalk. Shift focus to the hotels built right on the beachfront. Explore the coast with an incredible view of the water from your 15th floor suite! Walk straight onto the sand from the expansive lobby downstairs! Worry not about the limited coastline that we’ve built up into a condo and resort filled nightmare. Why would you ever look inland when you’re at the beach? Just keep your eyes on the water, and you’ll never even notice how much of the land that has been developed so that your walk isn’t too far. For those of you don’t feel like walking all the way into the salty mess of the ocean, we’ve got a lovely pool right out back for you to soak up the sun without the pesky sand getting between your toes.
Where is the appreciation for nature? Where has our sense of exploration gone? Are we doomed to live in a world that destroys most of the natural attractions that draw you away from your home, so that we can replace them with commercial and artificial wonderlands?
There is a dire need for our society to tame their cries for “newer, bigger, better” and rediscover our love for the natural world around us. These towns will continue to build up and out until the beach becomes a reference to the drop off of society and beginning of water. We are quickly extinguishing the beauty of this world and replacing it with repetitive novelties and hotels. We must all reevaluate why it is we travel to the beach; why it is we leave our homes to escape our current lives. Is it to stay somewhere safe and clean? Do we really continue to evacuate the comfort of our homes just to find that security in a different building? Or, is there still a sense of adventure left in enough of us to branch outside of our comfort zones and go bury our toes in the sand?
Let the waves have a shoreline to crash onto. Let the sun bake the sand until it’s warm enough to lie on. Let there be a beauty to the world on both sides of you as you walk down the coast. Let your travels be filled with discovery and adventure, not cheap gifts and a 3-day stay at a luxury hotel.
