2018 | Old Lifesaving Cemetery, Point Reyes
I had climbed this knoll above the graves, bowed under the low cypress as I negotiated the steps carved into the stone outcrop, and settled on this bench with my body aligned to the linear heart of its tree.
The surfmen who are remembered here rowed out from the old lifesaving station on Ten Mile Beach in their effort to assist sailors and passengers who were in even more danger somewhere along the craggy double-claw of Point Reyes. They dragged their boats down the beach and rowed out into the steep shorebreak, facing unchecked energy gathered on the long fetch from Alaska.
These men were beyond heroic, deeply committed even though some of them could not swim. The memorials here are for those who lost their lives during training. For me, their souls were the sober and hopeful atmosphere I was breathing in that place.
When I got home from my last visit there, I looked up their motto — “You have to go out, but you don’t have to come back.”