The ocean has always affected me profoundly. Encompassed within its imposing expanse, history, challenge, and opportunity have each left their indelible mark. Throughout time, men of courage and substance defiantly faced its omnipotence with dreams of fortune and a better life and so set sail to hope. Shakespeare immortalized the significance of this great expanse when he eloquently connected the fortunes of men with the sea’s deliberate tides. He penned that, “There is a tide in the affairs of men. Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune; omitted, all the voyage of their life is bound in shallows and in miseries. On such a full sea are we now afloat, and we must take the current when it serves, or lose our ventures.” Yet, despite its promise of fruitful ventures, the ocean is replete with challenge, mystery, and danger. Only courage and an abiding faith that tomorrow will bring a new day filled with its own destiny, steel men with the courage to push through its menace. What a powerful metaphor for life. There is a tide rooted in providence and faith that governs the affairs of man. Like the ocean, it is a tide equally predisposed to serenity as to overwhelming swells. Only through courage and faith in providence do we push ahead towards the promise of a better tomorrow, to a new dawn, to hope and opportunity. What a powerful canvas is the sea! - TK