Malibu Moments

October 1990

I’m sitting in the moonlight on the porch of our hideaway in Malibu. The moon is shining on the restless Pacific Ocean.    The moonlight twinkles like President Bush’s 1000 points of light atop each wave as it curls and dashes toward the sand. As the energy of the incoming wave crashes into the returning foamy waters, a 20 ft. spray shoots toward the sky with a sound like thunder.  What beauty: instead of a surfer riding the curl, the moonlight creeps inside for a briefly hidden rendezvous with my soul to offer me much needed tranquility.  As I sit here beside the pounding of the surf, enjoying the beauty and relaxation of the moment, my mind remembers other bodies of water in my lifetime.

I was born across the Muddy Mississippi in a hospital in Keokuk, Iowa. I grew up in St. Louis just southwest of the point where the Missouri River joins the mighty Mississippi. (We learned to spell the river’s name by chanting MI, CROOKED LETTER, CROOKED LETTER, I, CROOKED LETTER, CROOKED LETTER, I, HUMPED BACK, HUMPED BACK, I!)

My first view of the Atlantic Ocean was as a 5 year old visiting Atlantic City. My first view of the Pacific Ocean was at Newport Beach, California. It was a most romantic evening.   Mike lured me there to hunt grunion. Sure! I never saw any. I fell in love with the warm Pacific Ocean on our two visits to Hawaii. On a visit with my brother, Dick, in Houston, we drove to Galveston, Texas and lunched overlooking the Gulf of Mexico. A week with the Kriegers in Cancun, Mexico was another delightful time on the Gulf. A trip to Israel introduced me to the Mediterranean and the Sea of  Galilee and the Jordan River where St. John baptized Jesus, and the Dead Sea near where the scrolls were found.

While traveling to Montreal, Canada, we viewed the majestic St. Lawrence waterway. Another trip was along the Nile River in Egypt. Here I saw the poverty of  a third world.   I have pleasant memories of Lake Tahoe with Barbara, Buz and their children. Will my next junket be down the Amazon? Puget  Sound in Washington and the beauty of the Columbia River Gorge and the Willamette River in Oregon….. bringing me back in memory to the river near where I was born.