Beachcombing

"I do not know what I may appear to the world, but to myself I seem to have been only like a boy playing on the sea-shore, and diverting myself in now and then finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary, whilst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me."  ~ Isaac Newton 

 

What is knowledge acquisition if not gathering shells that land on the beach of our consciousness(es)? I once collected shells on a real beach and went on to play a game of chess. Then one of the shells walked away... Turns out crabs also beachcomb!​

 

In a society predicated upon mindless consumerism, can we instead mindfully make do with what we have? And if so, what treasures might we find, tangible or otherwise? Most radically, what if we ourselves are a beach on which others wash ashore, and vice versa?