SAND!!!!

Did you know we're running out of sand?
Yea.
Sand.
That stuff that nudists and Hayden Christensens wish wouldn't get everywhere.
The thing that Blake once wrote he saw the world in a grain of.
A substance I once watched a giant blue anthropomorphic cartoon newt turn into a window one Saturday morning - ensuring I would always remember what glass is made out of.
Sand.
Sand, as it turns out, is the main ingredient in concrete. And since we as a global community essentially build the concrete equivalent of one New York City every year, we now find ourselves on a crash course to burning through all accessible deposits of usable sand.
Father: the sleeper has awakened.
So severe is this rock dandruff depletion, that a new kind of criminal has arisen to capitalize on our shortages: Sand thieves.
Groups of plucky entrepreneurs who make their money by illegally seizing and selling black market sand.
Make that movie with a straight face, Hollywood.
So if you should find, one summer day, that you no longer can walk barefoot along your favorite lakeside dunescape - you might just have to settle for the nearest condo building.
But don't go to high.
Even if you don't fear heights, there's always a risk of falling.
I'm always afraid I'll want to fall - not in a self harm kind of way, but just a bizarre compulsion to sway forward and then do a flip or twelve.
The french have a phrase for this feeling: l’appel du vide. Not the flipping part, just the sensation of suddenly wanting to swerve into traffic, or step off the platform in front of an oncoming train. This emotion creates the shaky sensation of not being able to trust your own instincts. It literally translates into English as “the call of the void.”
Leave it to the french to make oblivion sound sexy.
I find comfort in knowing this phrase exists - “The call of the void.”
It suggests that sudden inexplicable bouts of self destructive thoughts are not only common, they're human.
And if it's human on an individual level, maybe it's also human on a planetary scale. Maybe it explains some of our behavior as a species ...
We didn't burn through every grain of sand because we wanted to. Sure, capitalism, greed, and general disregard for anything past your bottom line are the major contributors -
but is it not also possible that we may want to take a little collective tumble over a ledge.
As though we are compelled.

L’appel du vide - anyone?