Osprey - 6-17-2005 at 06:17 AM
Eye to Eye
I met Javier shortly after I retired to this sleepy little Mexican pueblo in Baja California Sur. We made an odd pair. Javier wore his 30 years
hard, burnt leather skin, mouthful of gold teeth and rugged features. I was a short, fat sixty-year-old with most of my own hair and the greygreen
eyes of my Irish ancestors. We warmed to each other immediately and when I bought a small fishing boat, he was my first fishing partner.
It was early spring and the Humpback whales that migrate south, just in front of my house, were in the area in great numbers. On this fishing trip,
the first of many trips in my small boat together, we motored close to pods of whales to get a better look. Javier asked if I had brought a visor, a
snorkel mask. I told him I had several at the house but I had none on this trip. With a curious smile he said he had always wanted to swim with the
whales, to try to get close enough to look in the eye of a huge whale. I told him I would be sure to bring the mask on our next outing.
Why did he want to look the great beast in the eye? I imagined what it would be like to swim just next to him and to look deep into the giant,
baleful eye of the whale. I wondered what deeply personal significance this brief connection would hold for Javier. I kept my curiosity private but
handy.
I was reminded of the concept of "sympathetic magic". That's an odd term I learned in a sociology class many moons ago. Our primitive ancestors ate
the hearts of the wild beasts they subdued and killed, to capture the strength and courage of the animal. From Eskimo totems to coonskin caps we have
kept the practice alive. Perhaps Javier and his Mexican and Indian ancestors carry an archetypal need to look into the eye of the animals that
sustained them and shared their time and space, down through the centuries. There might be secrets there, lost relatives, lost worlds.
It must be something from the past. Mexicans live in the present, place little import on the far future. (They don't need the courage or strength
of animals they have killed because they cannot predict that the future will have a place in it for them, let alone a dire need for supplemental guts
and gusto).
Whatever it is, I have a little of it myself. When Javier and I killed and slaughtered a lamb in my garden, I could not take myself away from the
creature?s eye, before, during or after the kill. Another time we were both held rapt at the almost serene look in the eye of a rabbit I killed for
our camp dinner with my slingshot, mi tiredor. When we rescued a juvenile Osprey from what might have been a watery grave two hundred meters off
shore, Javier, with great care, attended to it and nursed it back to health. While he sent me running for this and that ointment or natural remedy
for avian trauma, he sat transfixed by the ferocity and the flashing nictitations of the poor things eyes.
Javier and I are more than friends, closer than clones or twin brothers; my blood pumps through his young heart, he laughs through my mouth. We are
at abiding ease with each other, as comfortable as 12 year old boots or the natural feeling of my grandfather's pocket knife in my hand.
When I really need to know what he has learned, he will tell me. If he does not have the words, if he cannot explain the knowledge, I must remember
to have him close, in the stern, facing me, when I turn the bow of the boat away from the sun, so I can look into his eyes.
Wonderful story Osprey
Ken Bondy - 6-17-2005 at 08:51 AM
Bruce R Leech - 6-17-2005 at 08:57 AM
thanks for the really nice story Osprey. I really enjoy your writings.
elgatoloco - 6-17-2005 at 10:59 AM
Osprey
Nice story. Thanks!
Ken
Wow! Thanks!
DanO - 6-17-2005 at 11:44 AM
Great, great stuff. Thanks.
Whales encounters are Magic..
LaTijereta - 6-18-2005 at 09:10 PM
bajapablo - 6-18-2005 at 09:25 PM
osprey, nice writing
oladulce - 6-19-2005 at 01:22 AM
LaTijereta-
that's the coolest whale-petting photo I've ever seen.
As in Ken's photo, both photogs captured the extra effort that the whales took to look directly at them.
Amazing eyes on the whales and the photographers.
[Edited on 6-19-2005 by oladulce]
Natalie Ann - 6-19-2005 at 10:18 AM
For several hours one particular mama and baby whale followed us everywhere..... continually coming up against the panga for petting, pushing the
panga along as we floated, diving under us from one side to the other. One of the most magical experiences in my life.
Tucker - 6-19-2005 at 10:32 AM
I posted this a few years ago, can't post more as I promised, I don't have a functional scanner. As I told my then girlfriend "this is the most fun
I've had with my clothes on".
http://www.forums.bajanomad.com/viewthread.php?tid=163
One More
Tucker - 6-19-2005 at 11:03 AM
Can't resist, Gotta post one
turtleandtoad - 6-19-2005 at 11:34 AM
I've got a bunch more on my website (see sig)
2nd try
turtleandtoad - 6-19-2005 at 11:39 AM
woops, it was too big
Eli - 6-19-2005 at 07:27 PM
Again Ospery, good story line, and it has solisated some outstanding responses, beautiful pictures, WOW. Sure hope to make it up to the Lagoons out of
San Ignack this coming March. That is a dream I have had for too many years, time to go do it.
Debra - 6-19-2005 at 10:00 PM
Debra left her computer unguarded! Big sister caught me reading your site.
Everytime Debra sees these really great pictures of underwater photos she screams at me. LOOK AT "kenbondy.com" !!!! (email)
She just told me.....(I'm caught on the computer)......"say thanks Chris, those other photos are great also!"
So, thanks....(I always do what my big sister tells me)
Really, I don't get to travel as Debra does so it is really fun to see all of the photos she shares with me, and to get to visit your site.
Christine (Sister of Debra)