Osprey
Ultra Nomad
Posts: 3694
Registered: 5-23-2004
Location: Baja Ca. Sur
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The eye of the whale
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.
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Ken Bondy
Ultra Nomad
Posts: 3326
Registered: 12-13-2002
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Mood: Mellow
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Wonderful story Osprey
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Bruce R Leech
Elite Nomad
Posts: 6796
Registered: 9-20-2004
Location: Ensenada formerly Mulege
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Mood: A lot cooler than Mulege
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thanks for the really nice story Osprey. I really enjoy your writings.
Bruce R Leech
Ensenada
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elgatoloco
Ultra Nomad
Posts: 4323
Registered: 11-19-2002
Location: Yes
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Osprey
Nice story. Thanks!
Ken
Wow! Thanks!
MAGA
Making Attorneys Get Attorneys
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DanO
Super Nomad
Posts: 1923
Registered: 8-26-2003
Location: Not far from the Pacific
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Great, great stuff. Thanks.
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LaTijereta
Super Nomad
Posts: 1192
Registered: 8-27-2003
Location: Loreto
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Whales encounters are Magic..
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bajapablo
Nomad
Posts: 226
Registered: 1-27-2004
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osprey, nice writing
\"changes it lattitudes, changes in attitudes\"
J.Buffet
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oladulce
Super Nomad
Posts: 1625
Registered: 5-30-2005
Location: bcs
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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]
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Natalie Ann
Ultra Nomad
Posts: 2819
Registered: 8-22-2003
Location: Berkeley
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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.
Be yourself, everyone else is already taken.
.....Oscar Wilde
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Tucker
Senior Nomad
Posts: 664
Registered: 10-31-2002
Location: El Centenario, BCS
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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
\"I think it would be a good idea.\"
-- Mahatma Gandhi, when asked what he thought of Western civilization
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Tucker
Senior Nomad
Posts: 664
Registered: 10-31-2002
Location: El Centenario, BCS
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One More
\"I think it would be a good idea.\"
-- Mahatma Gandhi, when asked what he thought of Western civilization
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turtleandtoad
Senior Nomad
Posts: 730
Registered: 1-20-2005
Location: Wherever I park. See sig for current location.
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Mood: Good if fishing
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Can't resist, Gotta post one
I've got a bunch more on my website (see sig)
Mike & Robin; Full-Time RV\'ers
37\' Georgetown w/3 slides & 275 Watts of Solar Power
06 Taco TRD
www.turtleandtoad.com
I am here
To paraphrase Frank Lloyd Wright; I\'m all in favor of keeping dangerous weapons out of the hands of fools. Let\'s start with keyboards. --
Mike Dean |
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turtleandtoad
Senior Nomad
Posts: 730
Registered: 1-20-2005
Location: Wherever I park. See sig for current location.
Member Is Offline
Mood: Good if fishing
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2nd try
woops, it was too big
Mike & Robin; Full-Time RV\'ers
37\' Georgetown w/3 slides & 275 Watts of Solar Power
06 Taco TRD
www.turtleandtoad.com
I am here
To paraphrase Frank Lloyd Wright; I\'m all in favor of keeping dangerous weapons out of the hands of fools. Let\'s start with keyboards. --
Mike Dean |
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Eli
Super Nomad
Posts: 1471
Registered: 8-26-2003
Location: L.B. Baja Sur
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Mood: Some times Observing, sometimes Oblivious.
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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.
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Debra
Super Nomad
Posts: 2101
Registered: 10-31-2002
Location: Port Orchard Wa./Bahia de Los Angeles BC
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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)
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