TIDES

Waves are weird. Here's how they work. Gravity tugs water in one direction. The water and the seabed, tug it in another. The result is that beautiful, dramatic curl.

We saw it in action this week. It was a quiet week for me. As silent as the surface of the Moon, you might say. Peacefully, like a leaf in the wind, I moved many of my things from my dorm to a new educational institution where I'll be taking ecclesiastical courses. For me, it was a weekend spent painting walls, ironing my skirt pleats, and dancing with my new friends.

Meanwhile, on the seafloor, drama was stirring up a murky foment. As I weightlessly coasted into my future, others were dragged into the past, rolling in the muck and mud. The tidal bed in question was the infamous virtual-secrets.com.

And the question, in this case, was who posted a nasty image calling an ex of mine a "crazy person." The post - an image of his driver's license - wasn't all that inflammatory compared to the fare that catches fire on that site. The most surprising thing about it to me is that his height was listed as "6'1". But I knew that it would be a cherry bomb in the toilet of the community where I grew up. I was right. Comments about it exploded all day long. What I didn't predict, was that most of those comments were about me.

To get one thing as clear as the stars right now, I didn't post it. And I didn't comment. Yet every time anyone commented, someone else commented to accuse them of being me and to air their grievances about me. It went a little something like this:  Someone posted to blame Penny, a former friend of mine, for the post. So, Penny blamed me for being the one that blamed her. Then someone else anonymous stepped in to laugh at the whole thing, and got blamed for being me. And then, two more people stepped in to call the whole thing toxic and dumb, and both were accused of being me.

And where was I? Okay, I admit that I was laughing from the sidelines, at some points. But for the most part, I was decorating my new house and watching Apple TV. Mythic Quest, folks - not to be missed!

 This is all to say, like someone accused of being me once said, everyone should settle down. Like the ocean, tides change. Yes, to those still wrung out of shape about past relationships and insecurities - those trapped in the undertow of the moment - all that drama feels immediate and violent and painful. But when you see it from far above, the tides look peaceful. They look like brushes of paint. We fall asleep to the sound of waves.

So, I find peace in this. I hope everyone else does too. I would echo the song that the waves have sang to us since we were first able to hear and will sing long after we are gone. It has one melody: "Move on, move on, always move on."

Copyright ©2022, Petal Leaves