in and out

why are all the grains of sand on a beach the same size?

dad quizzed all of us on this natural phenomenon while we explored the first beach on saturday. now that i think about it, i wonder why nature seems a lesson in absolute conformity. stalwart obedience to season after season and all these brutal physical laws... but then, every beach is just a bit different. finer sand, darker pebbles, smoother rocks. and maybe strewn with driftwood and boulders sticking up out of all that sand. the patterns of each foamy wave are different. hm. patterns? but different?

the sun must always set, but no sunset is the same as any other (partly because another long day has spun away, has molded and picked at and transformed the person who is sitting, watching it end).

so our lives move in patterns. we can't control the tide.
but i am not like anyone else. the tide can't control me.