The fear of fleeting

 The feeling of fleeting is scary, especially for the people who have everything to lose. They know the tide will return and take away what is precious to them. There is nothing they can do to stop the tide from coming back. It is part of nature, something inevitable.

But the people who have everything to lose; spend their fortunes, risk their lives, and sacrifice their beloved ones to distance themselves from the upcoming tide. When everything fails, they spend their remaining resources building walls to keep them safe from the inevitable.

The wall stands still between life and death. The tides just clash on the wall and return to the sea. This comforts them; after spending years worrying about the waves, they can finally rest easy knowing their last effort did its job.

But they can't any longer; spending most of their life worrying about the tides has made them eternally awake. They can't afford to close their eyes, or something might happen. So, they decide to watch over the wall for the rest of their fleeting life.