Preliminary research conducted by a man in a camping chair near the Strand promenade, armed with a flask of Rooibos and what appeared to be a substantial amount of time, has confirmed that the sand underfoot along the Strand beachfront is composed primarily of nostalgia, with a meaningful secondary component of regret, the ratio shifting depending on the time of day and whether or not you have brought children.
“In the morning it’s more nostalgia,” the researcher noted. “You think about when you were young and the beach meant something simpler. By the afternoon, particularly if the wind has picked up and someone’s lost a shoe, it tips toward regret. Not deep regret. Just a low-level awareness that something has shifted.”
The findings, which have not been peer reviewed and which the researcher has no particular credentials to produce, have nonetheless resonated with a wide cross-section of Strand residents who describe the phenomenon as “very accurate, actually.” A retired schoolteacher who walks the promenade each morning said the research confirmed what she had suspected for decades. A man walking three dogs simultaneously said he didn’t have time to comment but nodded in a way that suggested agreement.
The sand itself has offered no response. It is soft near the dunes and firmer near the water and clings to everything regardless of precautions, which may itself be a metaphor the researcher was getting at.
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