Our View: Letting Go

 It’s easy to forget, given the extent of development on the Cape and the crowds that pour into the region in the summer, that we are surrounded by nature as well as the man-made environment. With many miles of beach and thousands of acres of open space preserved by towns, conservation trusts and the Cape Cod National Seashore, we can, with some effort, slip off the modern scourge of pavement and exhaust and decamp to a quiet beach, scrub forest or open meadow and decompress.

 Nature sometimes has other ideas, however, and brings the sometimes cruel-seeming real world crashing into our Cape Cod bubble. That can take different forms; Monday nature sent dozens of bottlenose dolphins into the Cape Cod Bay shallows from Brewster and Wellfleet. While many managed to make their way back to deeper water when the tide turned, tragically a half dozen did not survive.

 The crook of Cape Cod’s arm has long been a hotspot for marine mammal strandings. And for almost as long, residents and scientists have puzzled over why the animals drive themselves into shallow water and almost certain death. There are many theories, but few actual facts. 

 While the sight of these magnificent creatures lying on sand flats, unable to survive out of the water, is heartwrenching, it’s in many ways the essence of nature. Something in the natural environment causes strandings: a parasite, fouled-up navigation, herd behavior. We just don’t know. Whatever it is, it’s part of nature, and outside of our control. Nature is wonderful, and terrible. On Cape Cod, we experience both. Perhaps what we can learn from her is acceptance, and letting go of the control that people always want to exert on their environment.