 Ocean
Watch
Friday, May 30, 2003
Hidden gems make
e-mail worth reading
I sometimes procrastinate about reading my e-mail
because I have to wade through so much junk. But sometimes I find gems
buried in there. Here are several.
An online sailing newsletter reported that several
people recently sailed their catamaran through the southern Pacific Ocean.
During the trip someone opened a gift and discovered a 6-foot-tall,
inflatable emperor penguin.
The crew had a hilarious time trying to inflate the toy
aboard their speeding catamaran in those rough seas. Finally, they tied
the penguin up front on the trampoline.
A few hours later, six orcas appeared abreast of the
boat, which was flying along at 17 knots. The killer whales kept pace
easily, and as they drew closer to the vessel, the joke turned serious.
The uneasy crew deflated the plastic penguin and hid it from sight. The
orcas disappeared.
Emperor penguins are the largest of all penguins, but
the biggest ones stand only about 4 feet tall. For those orcas, that big,
fat penguin must have been a dream come true.
Orcas and humans often interact in a more controlled
environment. Larry, a retired heavy equipment operator from Kansas, wrote
me about his experience with a killer whale at Florida's Sea World. He
enrolled in an animal-interaction program during which people work with
trainers. It was one of the best days of his life.
"Being from Kansas, my ocean experiences are limited to
dreams. When the chance came to get close to killer whales, I left the
golf clubs at home and spent all my time at Sea World. I got to scratch
the bellybutton of an orca. Not too many people can say that."
Larry's next dream is to kayak with orcas in the San
Juan Islands. This will be a big deal, he writes, because he has never
seen the ocean.
After that touching letter came another. A 43-year-old
local boy (his words) wrote to compliment me on my "enjoyable, smooth,
flowing, easy-to-read writing style." Wow. It doesn't get better than
that.
I thanked him sincerely and attached a favorite Robert
Louis Stevenson line: "To travel hopefully is a better thing than to
arrive, and the true success is to labor." (From "El Dorado," 1881)
My reader wrote back, "I can't quite put my finger on
the 'El Dorado' quote."
I explained that the quote is a good one for writers,
since many of our words never see the light of day. We should remember
that the reward is not in the publishing, but in the process.
"Thank you for clarifying," the man replied. "It has
become a new inspiration to me. Now I may not only write, but also live
freely as a songbird released into nature with the clear peal of liberty's
bell proclaiming this newfound freedom of my labor's validation.
"That may sound corny, but it's my best effort at
trying to convey the emotion of what that quote made me feel. I have no
writing education except for what I learned in grade school."
Corny? No. "Everybody is talented, original and has
something important to say," wrote author Brenda Ueland. I agree.
Letters like these refresh and inspire me. And so does
traveling. In a few days I'm off to Morocco, where I will look for
purple-dye murex snails, ride a camel on the beach and find out why
Moorish idols are called Moorish idols.
I look forward to checking my e-mail when I return.
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