Lebensfreude (Joy of life)

I kept my favorite moment for the end, of course: A young girl dancing at the shoreline, here ease and presence crystallizing all the joy and wonder I tried to capture in images and words in the last days.

I liked the improvised choreography of her and the photographer. They were silently dancing together as he took photos of the surfers while she sent them her curiosity as she was swirling in the water and sand.

Seeing how free and joyful she was, I felt the impulse to join her, and felt sad about being too self-conscious to do so. (I also had my camera at hand that doesn't like water very much... still!)

("Lebensfreude" is a more typical compound, blunt from "Leben," life, and "Freude," joy. I think the French joie de vivre is an even nicer phrase here, but maybe mostly as I trust the French more with enjoying life to its fullest than the Teutons.)

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Original: http://bensahlmueller.com/2023-07-16

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Geschafft (successful/exhausted)

Still pumped with adrenaline, I stopped surfing that day when I felt an unexplainable irritation in my body. It later turned out that was an excellent idea - it was probably my body's way to tell me that it couldn't take any more sun that day. (In the evening, my hands were leathery as they missed a sunscreen-session in between. Gladly, the rest of the sunburns were much lighter.) That's the newbie way to end such a glorious day.

The better way is probably to surf to the point were your muscles are just so able to carry you back to shore. If that's true, these two brave siblings are pros. You can tell they are hardly able to carry their boards another meter. At the same time their faces carry the strength of true heroes who faced the test God/The Universe has put before them.

Their next test will be to use their tired fingers to peel out of their wetsuits and use their salt-soaked tongues to tell their parents about That One Big Wave They Rode All The Way To The Beach. But even if that doesn't work, Mom and Dad will probably be able to tell from their beaming eyes.

I hope they slept well while their bodies were reliving the feeling of riding the waves.

("Geschafft" is the past participle of "schaffen," accomplishing. Geschafft thus means to have accomplished something. But it also means to be dead beat exhausted. The best translation to capture this double meaning is probably "I've done it" vs. "I'm done" - in a single word. Also - yes, I wish I'd have turned the camera a bit left, but I might have missed the two then, you can see they are already stepping out of focus. The disadvantages of manual focus I guess 🤷🏼‍♂️.)

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Hitze (Heat),

The sun burns the skin and transfers the ashen sand into what feels like hot lava. Over the sand, the air visibly shimmers, sometimes so much that the trees beyond the beach might be just a mirage. But all this is doable, the water is fresh, and something simple like an umbrella might spend enough shade to walk around. (A camera enough distraction not to care.) I wonder whether the classical Parisian parasols will have a comeback?

And then there is the different kind of heat of course. The heat that comes from watching fit, joyful, only partly-dressed people all day who all are their best selves. Bronzen skin under golden light. Salt water-soaked hair. The sparkle of the sea on an upright back while it elegantly bends to take the next wave... you get the idea! At Waiao, this energy felt peaceful. Just another layer of wonder over all the other layers of sun, sea, sand, and palm trees. It was more inwardly appreciated curiosity than outward directed desire.

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Kriegsbemalung (War Paint)

I have to make a confession: I burned myself terribly that day. In the summer, the UV index in Taiwan can climb easily in the "extreme" region of 11+ in summer. You feel the sun tickling the moment you step outside and it takes only a few minutes to have light burns. So of course I grudgingly jumped out of the water all half-or-so-hour, danced over the lava... eh sand, to hit me up with a new dose of sun screen.

...but I forgot my hands. My poor hands. They were sandy and I didn't want to "waste" my last drinking water to clean them, so I only did a half ass job. Well, turns out sand on the hand is rinsed in water. So yeah, I had two lizard hands afterwards and a quite worried and angry wife.

Anyway. Apparently the way you are supposed to do it is with these war-paint like stripes. As the sun is coming from more or less straight above, this is enough? It immediately reminded my of some Maori warriors or something. Which is cool, because Taiwan's coast is actually the Maori's cradle! Maybe they even surfed these very waves? (Well, not these waves of course, see last post...)

("Kriegsbemalung" is the German word for war, "Krieg," plus the German word for painting, "Bemalung," with the genitive-s in-between. "Bemalung" is also interesting as it has the verb "malen"/paint in the middle and a lot of stuff around it to make it a noun. But I'm not a German teacher and this is not German class, so we'll keep it at that for now.)

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Einklang (In unison)

I think it's not an accident that the mythical sirens are creatures of the sea and not the mountains or forests. There is something alluring about the sea, in a very individual way. Different from a mountain, the sea is ever-changing and thus less object-like, more alive. It also feels more personal. "You cannot step into the same river twice," says a popular parable by Heraclitus. Similarly, no two people can step into the same sea. The Ocean is yours. (In a complex, a bit silly spiritual way, of course! Not literally!) It is this relationship that the idea of sirens and mermaids (and mermen) alludes to I think.

I was very careful when I stepped behind this young lady when I took the picture. Sure, there was some of the carefulness of a street photographer who didn't want to disturb "his" scene. But now, when I look at the image, I think there was more to it. I still sense the intimate invisible ribbon that connects her to the sea, and it was a ribbon I didn't want to cross.

("Einklang" literally means "one sound." "In Einklang sein mit etwas," to be in "one sound" with something means to have a resonant connection, to be in unison, to be tuned in towards something or someone.)

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Meeresruf (Call of the Sea)

Surfing always had a certain coolness and sexiness to it. Both the sun and sea call for light beachwear, even naked skin. This in turns calls for a "good body" (in a conventional sense). Surfing is a sport, so training and showing your body go hand in hand. Does this mean the coolness and sexiness of surfing are of a commercial, evaluative kind, restricted to the "cool kids"?

It surely looks like this on many photos, but I'm sure it's not true. While my own experience is restricted (I do it a few times a year at most), I've seen mostly open-mindedness, respect, or a you-do-you kind of ignorance around looks and beach fashion. Sure, it's probably different once you start battling for the best wave of the beach (and/or the queen or king riding it), but this seems like an edge case.

Altogether, I often feel the commercial aspect of surfing, "cool" brands, influencers, IKEA photos of beaches or self-made surfboard-benches is at best a meaningless aesthetic game (at worst a pile of bs) when compared to actually doing it. Actual surfing is more about sun burns, sore muscles, injuries, sleeping in a tent or van where it's hot, sweaty, and full of insects, and a wild and free joy that doesn't care about superficial status questions.

This also means: There's nothing you have to do to "belong" but showing up at a beach. Often, you can even find someone renting a board, and they are entrepreneurs who love the sea, so they are happy and helpful to get you (and your money) coming back.

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Vorfreude (Anticipation)

Waiao Beach is a surfing Mecca for Northern Taiwan. The sun starts burning early, the first surfers come even earlier. At noon, the ashen sand is so hot that it's almost impossible to cross. Yet the water... the water is pristine. Cooling, wild, alive.

There is a smile in everyone's face, peaceful excitement, the most natural form of joy. "For this day," it seems to say, "we are all just apes on a plank of wood. And nothing in this world is important but this very moment."

This week is dedicated to this wonderful, special place! And for no reason but that I speak the language and that is has so wonderful words, I'll gift you some nice German words...

("Vorfreude," like many German words, is composite of different parts, here "Freude," joy, and the prefix "vor," meaning before as well as ahead. So Vorfreude is the "ahead-joy." This is how we roll!)

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🌏 | #taiwan #taipei #waiao #waiaobeach #臺灣 #台灣 #外澳沙灘
📷 | #a7r #voigtlander #voigtlander40mm #manualfocus
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