What makes waves

Sana and I are coming up on one full year living together in the United States, specifically in the People’s Republic of Virginia Beach, Virginia.

Now living in Virginia Beach naturally means you’re always fairly close to the beach, and for the last 9 months, Sana and I have lived literally on the beach. A small apartment right on the oceanfront area of the city.

Being so close to the water, we take walks along the boardwalk just about every night, and it seems that Sana always comments on how the waves are so high even though there’s no wind. Tonight there was a lot of wind and the waves were pretty high. Other times there’s no wind at all, but the waves are pretty close to as high as they were tonight.

After doing a bit of research, I’ve come to find out a little bit about what causes waves to come crashing onto the beach. It comes down to two different types of waves: wind-generated waves and what are known as “swell” waves. (You might be imagining little Opie Taylor saying, “Gee Pa, that’s a swell wave!” but it goes deeper than that – pun intended.)

The wind transfers its energy onto the water, which in turn manifests itself into the water rising up and down. Pretty basic stuff – and that’s about as basic a description of waves you’ll ever see.

The swell waves are a bit more complex. It turns out the varying temperatures in larger bodies of water like oceans create a lot of friction when they meet. This energy war under the surface is very intense, and the result is waves being formed above the water.

There’s also something known as the Coriolis Effect which correlates to the spherical shape of the Earth and its rotation. Water moves in a curved versus a straight line because of the Coriolis Effect, which creates subsurface patterns known as “gyres” and in turn manifests on the surface – the infinitesimal portion of the ocean we can see – as some rather intense waves.

Sana casually remarking on this, (and me doing a really bad job of explaining this phenomenon to her) got me to thinking about how the figurative waves we see in life are always the tiniest portion of what we are able to see, which is caused by something stirring deep within us.

Married couples squabble over petty things, but this is simply the result of deep frustrations, resentments that are harbored within.

Clients and vendors have major blowups seemingly out of nowhere, but you realize there has been something simmering with one or both of them for a really long time.

The blowup, usually over something minor, is just like those waves we see on the ocean that are caused by clashing temperatures, the shape of the earth, even currents caused by friction hundreds of miles away.

If there is nothing else I’ve learned living so close to the ocean, I’ll take that life lesson any day. When someone blows up at me, I’ll just think about what’s going on within versus simply reacting to the exterior “waves” right in front of me.

What about you? Do you encounter “waves” like this? Reply to this email and share your story. I love to hear from my subscribers and always reply to every response.