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I touched a whale

You should know that right after Sally got her second touch (two pages ago), that whale came up to the bow of the boat and greeted me. I put my camera in my right hand and leaned down with my left and rubbed her upper jaw.

She felt me touch her. She reacted to me, I swear it. She pushed up into my hand; she held herself up against it. Her skin was smooth (where there weren't barnacles) it was soft but tough. It felt like wet rubber, except rubber doesn't usually make my hand tingle and my mind swim. I'll never forget that feeling.

But my guess is that you had to be there. Sorry. But I wrote this in my tent later that afternoon. Maybe it will help.

 
Unending Grace off Punta Piedra

We help ensure an ancient trust today.
A bond once sorely threatened by our greed
whose forfeiture, a price too dear to pay,
forestalled (for now) by our surprising need,

to see the unknown world before our eyes:
the wisdom, power, peace and mystery
of life outside the human enterprise
and God's creation before our history.

And so we venture from our solid shores
to bob precariously above their place
and drink from these great creatures ready stores
of truth and joy and unending grace.

And with the simple touch (and tear) we give,
renew the bond that they -- and we -- may live.

     24 February 2001

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