Tribute to Todd 01 ... 1st Ceremony at Kealakekua Bay

It made sense for Kealakekua Bay to be the site for our first Todd-Tribute. For starters, Todd really loved this place. I know he came here several times over the years to swim in the surf and, on occasion, to play with the pod of dolphins who live nearby. It also happens to be the place where Todd and I had spent one of our finest mornings together -- hanging out on the beach and swimming in the Bay.Show more

When we first considered these memorials, I thought Todd would be more appreciative of something "fluid" & "spontaneous" & symbolic than something pre-planned or ritualistic or scripted. As such, I had at first dismissed the idea of videotaping them at all ... And yet, as we all understand to one degree or another -- "Make plans; God laughs."

Even though we had originally intended to avoid filming these memorials, it quickly became apparent that it was better that we do so. After having placed the first portion of his ashes on a stone near the surfline, Vanessa & I were quietly and reverently standing there, watching the waves and gazing at his ashes, when the ocean started doing some amazingly odd things. It was later that I learned that the "dance" we then began witnessing is apparently called "wave confusion", and yet at the time, I simply knew it was phenomenally beautiful.

As you can tell in the video, this particular beach is sharply sloped towards the surf, meaning that the waves that come in crash upon the rocky shore and then return quite swiftly back to the sea. As it turns out, just a few minutes after spreading Todd's ashes there, the outgoing waves started returning at exactly the same frequency as the next waves were arriving, which had them both gently meeting each other at exactly the same tempo and exactly the same magnitude just a few meters offshore. And whenever they did so, the two waves "rose up" into one another, undulating skyward until reaching a height where "further upwards" was no longer possible, before then "passing through" one another and going their separate ways.

It was at this point that we decided to start filming, and while the original grandeur of that first "wave confusion" never returned, this footage is quite Beauty-full nonetheless. I found it especially intriguing that Todd's ashes had been placed right at the border between the crashing surf and the dry stones; how the waves repeatedly flowed right up to them without ever fully washing them away.

Peace ... S