47 Saturday Morning at Sdot Yam Beach

More than a year has passed since the first column of "Pictures from my Cell Phone" appeared. I started it with one of my favorite places to which I return time and again – the beach of Sdot Yam. I photographed the sunset. When I look over my photo collection from that period, I see that I shot dozens of pictures of the sun setting in the sea. This is for me the most beautiful hour on the beach. How good it is to feel the slightly warm breeze and walk barefoot in the shallow water at sunset.

But lately I have devoted the last hours of daylight before Shabbat to my bicycle trips and here I am at the beach in the early morning hours. There are still only a few people here. The sea is stormy and the water almost reaches the sun sheds in the photo's right hand side. Two or three brave swimmers are in the sea and a father and his son are riding the waves in a canoe that isn't seen in the picture. The man on the left hand side is watching the canoe which just now reached the buoy in the center of the bay.

As yet the paddle ball and soccer players have not arrived. The peace and quiet of the sea are almost dream-like. But in another moment a huge wave will sweep over the dry sand at the pictures base and drive me away to a spot some ten meters from the sea. I read the final pages of "Disgrace" by Coetze. What a powerful book, what a wonderful author. I try to discover the meaning behind his subtle hints. Why the black neighbor is called Petrus (the name of one of the first Christians)? Why is the name of the young attacker Pollux (a name from the Greek Mythology)? Why was the episode at the University of Cape Town told before the story of the rape on the farm? What is the meaning of the first chapter that stands alone? And what are Byron, the great English poet and his abandoned lover Theresa doing here?

It is already warm. I shake off my thoughts and jump into the cool water – and clear my head of all this.