Photo: One Against the Waves

Ever since we began, we've been in a struggle against the forces of nature, impersonal forces that don't care if we live or die. With time and sweat and gold and blood we've carved our cities and civilizations out of that uncaring world, and at times it's easy to forget that raw primordial power that moves outside our boulevards.

This photograph comes from San Francisco's Ocean Beach, the shore of the Pacific Ocean, and from here the next western landfall is Japan. I believe the person is there for fishing; in an earlier photo I saw him or her carrying what looked like a rod. I don't know how readily the fish would bite amid all that surf, though.

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