Galveston and Ishmael, just to be weird

In Galveston today, and it smells like the ocean! We are less than a quarter mile (prepare to turn in a quarter of a mile! Guido! hahaha oh the GPS) from the frapping ocean, and if you go to the third story, and strain to see above the other beach houses, you can see it. I guess it's really not the ocean, more the gulf of Mexico, but still. It's gorgeous!
We went down and spent a few hours on it today. Part of the sand, mainly the sections closest to the water is a dark murky brown, where the sand closer to land is more white and fluffy. Glen's Uncle, Steve, said it was because of tar from different oil spills. He then proceeded to dig up clumps of black sand.
But then again, the earth was created for man, so why shouldn't we do as we please?
I'll get back to that later.
I went walking on the beach and on my way back, I noticed a Tiger Eye shell. If you haven't seen one, google it, because they are really cool, and I was thinking about how my mom would probably like it, so I reached for it, and there was a hermit crab inside! I sat down in the sand and watched it for awhile. I haven't particularly liked nature or crabs or shells before (before this previous spring semester) but this one crab captivated me.
We can co-exist with nature.
Which brings me to Ishmael. Terri's right, it's stunning. Seriously. It made me look at the world completely differently than I have before, and like her I don't want to say much. Other than it caused me a lot of despair. Mostly last night. I was watching the opening ceremony, and I couldn't find beauty in the technology or dances they did. I wanted to, and normally I should have, but I was caught up in that we need to change, we need to stop fighting nature, we need to learn to coexist, we need to stop conquering, and watching the ceremony just felt like a road block that opened my eyes to the BILLIONS of people who don't want to.
Who probably aren't aware anything really needs to change. Who don't know an alternative. I don't think I have the answers, or the best alternative, and it was depressing to know what needs to be done, and feel like I had no way of doing anything.
I talked with Glen a lot about it, and he told me that I was trying to conquer the problem myself. I can't do that. I realized that I have to give this problem to God, and trust that humanity is in his hands, and he will know what to do with it. I also have to have faith in humanity being good, and if we are good, we will do what is good. Basically what I've come up with that we can do to change is:
1. Raise awareness
2. Live the lifestyle
3. Lead by example.
And those solutions work for me. Sorry if this post was overly personal.