WATER. WATER. WATER.
Did I mention that our house is a stone’s throw from Gardiner’s Bay?
Yes, I know I did, but opening sentences are always tricky for me. And this proximity to the bay is the primary reason we chose this house. And for me it was practically the only defensible reason. So what is it about water that we (humans) are so drawn to?
Sure, it’s cool and refreshing to swim in on a hot summer day, it’s soothing, restful, and in the case of big surf, thrilling. The sound of surf or even the soft ripple of a lapping bay provides a repetitive kind of heartbeat that is also pleasing to ear and mind.But there’s more to it than that. We are evolutionarily wired to love water.

Neuroscientist Michael Crawford of the University of North London has proposed that our ancient ancestors were devotees of the sea, and that their devotion paid off by allowing the human species to develop large and complex brains.

Crawford claims that when humans separated from apes and emerged from the forests of Africa, they stuck close to rivers and beaches and started feasting on fish, clams and crabs. That marine diet was packed with omega-3 fatty acids, essential fatty acids that promote brain cell growth. 

It's no coincidence, Crawford claims, that human brain growth began to increase exponentially once we left the woods and headed for the beach.

Psychiatrist and lipid biochemist Joseph Hibbelin of the National Institutes of Health has shown that across cultures there is a direct correlation between ounces of fish eaten each week and reduced rates of depression.

If you watch video taken from the orbital space stations and satellites (some of which are sped up so within 60 seconds you can circumnavigate the globe—amazing stuff) you can clearly see that the bulk of humanity today lives near water. We live along coastlines, around the rims of bays, up the course of rivers and streams, and on islands. We also vacation at the beach and find solace fishing on a lake. As children we thrill at every opportunity to splash in the tub, walk through a puddle, run through a sprinkler and jump into anything wet and deep.

But aside from evolutionary explanations and the essential fact that the sea is a source of nutrition (not to mention that at birth our bodies are over 75% water) and advantageous for transportation and commercial growth—there is a spiritual element that plays a role as well. The sea has mesmerizing power. There is the sheer magnitude of it all, and even on a lake or a river where you can see clearly to land just a few hundred feet away, there is a still a sense of enormous volume and an awareness of all the life within it. And being on the coast by the ocean, the effect is heightened to a degree that is (for me) breathtaking. For years I have tried to read on the beach but to no avail. The distraction of the water is too great. I can sit for hours looking at it even on the calmest of days--just realized that I can do that with fire as well—which raises the issue of the primacy of that element in our wiring too. Which also makes me realize why a bonfire on a beach has become a kind of universal and stereotypical setting in the depiction of ultimate relaxation and contentment.

All of which is just a long and round about way of saying…water is the shiznit.