Perspectance

Did you know that there are island vortexes of garbage out at sea? When my family brought this up over dinner last night, besides being fascinated, it struck a nerve. I sensed it has something to do with my absence in the online communities I’ve ventured into, maybe even my inability to write this summer. They said it was like the Sargasso Sea, only with garbage instead of plants. Hmmm….

First I googled the trash vortex.

Basically what happens is that for most of the summer in this one area of the North Pacific about halfway between Hawaii and the US mainland, a high-pressure cell sits. This creates a very calm area of ocean surface. And as the currents circle around the whole of the North Pacific in a clock-wise direction plastic passes by this area and enters the calm and essentially just stays there.

Then I wikied the Sargasso Sea which is in the Bermuda Triangle:

credited with some of the infamous disappearances there. That stigma is further enforced by the sometimes total lack of wind over the sea, and the possibility for modern engines to become entangled in the sargassum, stranding most vessels.

The very salty Sargasso Sea is sometimes regarded as being lifeless, though it is home to some seaweed of the genus Sargassum. This seaweed floats en masse on the surface there.

Currently thought to be more problematic than all this entangling seaweed is the doldrums:

periods of deadly calm could trap boats for days or weeks on end as they waited for enough wind to power their sails.

Now what does all this have to do with my community involvement [non]? Well, it’s obvious by now that I feel calmly adrift at sea, surrounded by masses of either lush life or piling trash, entangled, waiting, and no wind. Doldrums for sure.