A French beauty barrels through. Photo: Smolowe
France, 2010. I’m sitting in an aged Volkswagen camping car called “Le Dormeur” reading a friend’s copy of Meditations by Marcus Aurelius. I’ve injured my leg badly enough that I can’t surf. With some pride, I remember that Dion Agius had checked out the same spot that had done a number on me and hadn’t gone out. The swell, like it must be in all such stories, was dredgy, hollow and big. It was like stepping into the ring with Mike Tyson. Just duck and weave, son. Don’t be the hero.
In Hossegor, there’s a carpark at the Capbreton Marina where you can camp out without the authorities hassling you. All the savvy Europeans go there, living it up in their luxury Winnebagos, enjoying their retirement and not paying a thing. That’s where I started reading.
Three weeks into a road trip and, without the usual luxuries, you eventually build up enough patience to tackle a book like Meditations. Usually, that type of literature is only good for quotes or adorning your bookshelf, you’re never actually meant to read it from start to finish. But I did, and I haven’t looked at it since.
Anyway, consider this little gem from Book V, “When you find yourself, in a morning, averse to rise, have this thought at hand: I arise to the proper business of a man: And shall I be averse to set about that work for which I was born, and for which I was brought into the universe? Have I this constitution and furniture of soul granted me by nature, that I may lye among bed-clothes and keep my self warm?”
Does anything else explain the plight of the dawn-patroller like that eloquent passage?
I personally battle with the endless mind games that must preclude any early winter session. The anti-surfer voice in my mind wants to stay in bed, loves self-preservation and has a naturally manipulative guile. The true self, the heart, knows that without sacrifice there is no payoff and that sacrifice is transitioning from a warm bed to a cold wetsuit.
Reading the wisdom of a long-dead white guy may better suit a dusty lecture hall than a down-and-out surf trip. But never have those ancient, timeless ideas seemed so relevant. With all the so-called technological advances, people are still essentially the same.
