The tide as a kind of governance

Woke before dawn and walked the flats. The tide was just turning—that long pause when the water hangs, deciding. It struck me: the tide doesn't argue, doesn't vote, doesn't plead. It just obeys something older than any law we've written. And yet we call it a 'schedule,' as if we own it. That's the dream I keep coming back to—a system that doesn't need convincing.