As usual the news was filled with reporting on national divorcing of red and blue and infinite variations, enough said, as much of the world’s energy went into taking things apart.

But in one part of the world, itself no perfect place as wealthier and poorer live their sadly stratified lives and the privileged play while the struggling work, there was a moment of sheer loveliness. All the struggle was right there, the endless plastic bottles and trash caught in the grass and dunes and trees just behind the waves, those with too little money selling what they could on the beach while the kites soared.

I wonder what we do about this. But I doubt simply ignoring the soaring fixes the struggling.

So I did love watching as the kite surfers fluttered across the waves like butterflies used to before so many went extinct along with their habitats.

And I particularly felt my breath catch when three surfers, perhaps part of a team though maybe they were just committed to sheer joy, started skimming in unison. Back and forth they raced across the ocean, slowing down to turn at the ends of coves then somehow knowing who would take the lead and how quickly until they were lined up in near-perfect formation.

Mostly there was no need to do anything but cherish the sight. I also, however, thought about the sheer delight stirred by humans who must have spent endless hours practicing their soaring collaboration rather than feeding endless versions of that national divorcing.

I thought I’d better learn from their example how to invest more of my own energy in skimming and less in splitting.

And I imagined all the healing that could be released if resources for kiteboarding, both literal and metaphorical, were so equitably shared across the weathier and poorer of us that we could all skim together on the Planet Earth team.

—Michael A. King is blogger and editor, Kingsview & Co; and publisher, Cascadia Publishing House LLC. He has been a pastor and seminary dean.