Dolphin Talk by Marie

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Dolphin Talk

An excerpt from the book
California Currents
An Exploration of the Ocean's Pleasures, Mysteries, and Dilemmas

by Marie De Santis

........Every one of us in this society is severely deprived of a relationship with Mother Nature. Nature no longer provides for us; no longer supplies the rhythm of our lives; nor is it the source of our work or ay interaction at all other than the camping, hiking, and sailing which is only the hollow shell of the real relationship we lost generations ago. The loss and the need are as great as life itself, because our minds, bodies, and souls were designed as a template to nature. And our lives no longer fit.

So, we create a fantasy. We look out to the sea, which is still primal and unknown, and we say the dolphin is going to talk to us; the dolphin has an ideal society; the dolphin is playful and nurturing; the dolphin is love.

A friend of mine said he had a religious experience after seeing a whale. He's the same friend who won't go fishing with me because he doesn't want to kill anything. I say to him, "Richard, you've got some serious denial going on about what nature is all about."

One time we went to the beach, and a sea lion was propped against a rock, dying, and Richard said, "We've got to get it to a rehabilitation center right now!"

"But," I said, "that animal is supposed to die to keep the species strong."

And he became very upset with me and said, "You've killed so many animals that you're starting to think that death is natural."

I know that the leaders of the environmental movement understand that it's not the dolphin, or the seal, or the otter that have to be saved; it's the roundness of things, it's nature in its full spectrum of dynamics. I know this because I've talked with many leaders of various groups. So I ask them, "Why? Why this sentimental thing with the marine mammals?" And the answer is always the same, "To pull people in." But I think it is dangerous because it only promotes the fantasy. continue below

RWZ Editor comment

California Currents
An Exploration of the Ocean's Pleasures, Mysteries, and Dilemmas
by Marie De Santis
ISBN: 0-89141-191-7

I've included this excerpt from Marie's book in this section for several reasons. First, she is a member of RWZ and has much to share with the rest of us about the uneasy transitions we're faced with in life, moving from one lifestyle to another, and how to face huge challenges while following one's own heart. One of the things she did when she faced transitions was write. On a personal level, she has been a good listener and has given me good advice as I face the loss of a way of life on a family farm.

I think that many rural women, farmers and ranchers in particular, live their lives in conjunction with Nature in the sense that Marie describes in "Dolphin Talk." And when we face losing this life, we we risk losing much more than a career. We are in terrible jeopardy of no longer having this interaction with Nature. We fear having to settle for recreational "camping, hiking and sailing" when we know these are not sufficient substitutes.

There is something very compelling about wanting to declare, "I do! I still have a relationship with Nature and she provides for me, she supplies the rhythm of my life!" And I don't want to lose it.

With her background as "the only woman commercial fisherman in the Bay Area" (from the book Foreword) she brings a refreshing wider perspective to the concept of "rural woman" beyond the farms and ranches. She also has pursued a nontraditional career in close connection with Nature and in stark contrast to urban perspectives.

Marie expresses here some of the things I tried to articulate about "the full range of interaction" with animals in my Open Letter to Animal Rights Activists.

-- Lynda, Section Editor

"And the fisherman sees that the dolphin is curious and
comes up to his boat, and he talks to the dolphin,
in the same way he talks to the salmon and the
sun and the wind and the sea gulls and the slime eels."

It's true that this tremendous love of marine mammals expresses people's real and deep desire for a relationship and renewal with nature. But it's a dysfunctional projection in terms of survival, and it needs to be disillusioned so that real change can come about. As long a people are focused in this fantasy, they're not going to deal with the fact that it's their own way of life that deprives them of interaction with nature, and talking with the dolphin will not magically re-establish the link. Because the dolphin is not the deity, and the fisherman is not the devil.

The fisherman is out there every day, working and dealing with these animals. He sees that the dolphin has teeth and spends much of its day corralling schools of fish, trapping them up against the surface, and then decimating the school. And the fisherman sees that the dolphin is curious and comes up to his boat, and he talks to the dolphin, in the same way he talks to the salmon and the sun and the wind and the sea gulls and the slime eels. But this communication is not romanticized; sometimes the fisherman is enraged with the interaction, and at times he is thrilled with its bounty, and humiliated and terrified and cocky and disgusted and in awe -- in other words, the full range of human interaction in mesh with the full range of nature's expression.

So when the fisherman sees the public coming out on the ocean to adore the mammals, he sees it as a cult, as "Bambiology," as totally out of touch with reality, the same way you would see van loads of people coming into your neighborhood to adore the dog. And the fisherman recoils at joining forces with this fantasy, because there is so much more going on.

The fisherman knows intuitively that his way of life -- despite the nets, the hook, and the harpoon - is much closer to a way of life that is necessary for the preservation of the earth than that of the person who lives every day with artificial things created by destroying the earth -- and then on weekends goes to sea to worship the whale.

Reprinted with permission from the author.