Ordinarily Uncommon

I'm impatient with entertainment. When a movie starts, and the opening credits are showing, I'm ansy for the start of the story. I can't believe how long it takes between an opening band and the headliner.... "Hurry up and start rocking," I want to scream. "We're waiting for YOU, you know, standing here drinking 7 dollar watered-down Coke and Beams while you sip chamomille tea and tease your hair backstage. Hurry up!"

So, I'm not sure why it is that I can stare blankly at the horizon when the sun is setting, and not move until the last color fades. And I'm confused by the fact that I can watch the waves crashing on the sand for what seems like minutes, and realize that it has been over an hour. I don't know why something that's so seemingly ordinary... something that I've seen before, dozens and dozens, maybe hundreds of times... can still captivate me like a kid watching his first fireworks.

But thinking about the time I've spent staring at those very things on the beach here in Ko Lanta Thailand, I guess I can understand a little. It's not really ordinary at all, no matter how common.