I grew up in California on the edge of the Pacific Ocean. Even as a child I loved the water. I did not, however, often get a chance to play in it. "Come home straight from school," my mother said every morning. This was because my route took me right past the beach. "If you go to the beach today," she would say on Saturdays, "leave your swimming suit at home." Even when she was with me at the ocean she would allow only my feet to get wet. "Be careful of the undertow," she would warn. "if you fall down, you won't be able to get up again." My mother probably overreacted out of her own fear of the ocean. Nonetheless, her words were to be obeyed. Both she and I knew that. To hear her on the matter of the Pacific was to obey her. I was a normal child, but seldom did she get an argument from me.…