Seal of Approval - Part Three by Sophie Deakin
Image by Leah Tardivel from Unsplash.
The third and final entry of a three-part creative non-fiction series by third-year student Sophie Deakin centred around the history, folklore and natural beauty of the Cornish fishing town of Looe.
The sunset over the valley is the most beautiful sight on Earth.
This is no opinion. It is the truth, pure and simple. The kind of truth that needs no citation. It simply is. As sure as eggs are eggs, as certain as death and taxes, as inevitable as oblivion.
Some people find the constant, unchanging nature of the universe daunting. It can be haunting to think about the world still turning long after we are gone, the stars still shining and the moon still commanding the tides. Some believe this makes life meaningless, and perhaps they’re right.
Everything that terrifies us feels so demanding and all-encompassing now, but it will not matter in the end when we are nought but dust and ashes. When each atom that came together to create us disperses and forms new life, the sunset over the valley will still be the most beautiful sight on Earth. It always was.
So perhaps life is meaningless, and nothing that we do matters. Perhaps we only believe in ‘must’ and ‘should’ when we are bound by nothing at all. But more importantly…perhaps there has always been someone here, standing where I stand, watching a kaleidoscope on the surface of the water, and wondering what will become of us.
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Looe’s history is more visible than that of other towns. One only has to walk through it to find various plaques and signs, noting little details of its place in history.
The land that holds the home of my old best friend was once owned by William the Conqueror. The very walls of the restaurant where I used to work evenings are over five hundred years old. The little village, where the school bus used to stop to pick up the one student who lived there, has been inhabited for an estimated three thousand years.
It can be hard, sometimes, to get out of your head and realise that the world is beyond just you and me, but it’s not so hard here.
Walking down the quayside of West Looe, you may notice a plaque built into stone that reads ‘REPEARED BY THE CROWN’. It refers to the Saint Anne’s chapel, built upon the old bridge that no longer stands here. The plaque lines up with where the bridge used to be. Meaning, in a way, that if you moor your boat up on the right spot in the harbour, it’ll be on holy ground, dedicated to the patron saint of sailors. That’s got to be good luck.
Edited by Tia Jade Woolcock