Instead of saying, “Look at the bay, look at the trees,” I tried and continue to try changing who acts in my sentences. “The tupelo trees are greeting you; the Narragansett Bay swims by.” Maybe if the language I use understands the landscape where our lives unfold as animate, he will too. I’ll admit that, at first, this felt like a thought experiment, and not one that came easily to me. But just a couple of days ago, I was walking on the beach and realized I didn’t have to try anymore to think about this ocean as a person: it just was and is.
