Once Upon a Whale

there she blows...

Once Upon a Whale

 While vacationing in Antarctica I happened upon a pod

of humpback whales. What a sight to behold---they were

flapping and flipping, jumping ,diving and jiving. I laughed

in delight at the aerial  acrobatics  and the playful bantering

between them. I knew this pack well as I used to hang with

their great, great, grandparents Zazra and Zulee in my

younger days…

 

They greeted me warmly and invited me to stay awhile and

play and sing along beside them. I told them stories of their

ancestors and of the greatest song ever sung~~

 

I began with the old refrain…

 

Once upon a time long, long ago, when this great land and its

seas was not yet touched by the genocidal hands of Man,’ two

humpback whales from different packs across the seas fell in love.

But the Greenlander packs Matriarch, Zeezoo, forbad Zulee to form

a union with Zazra of the Arctica Group Pod-

 

‘we would hardly ever see you again as our breeding seasons are

on opposite cycles~ we spend our summers here in the greenlands

while Zazra’s pack spends theirs in the Arcticfrost. you need to find

a mate within our pod groups---we would be the weaker without you~~’

 

Zulee was heartbroken and although she loved Zazra with all her being

she would not-could not- go against the wishes of her beloved

Matriarch. She broke the news to Zazra---they both wept…

 

As Zulee was about to depart from her lover forever--- Zazra

started to sing. He started to sing the song he was going to sing for

her in their mating ritual--- but that was not to be.  He changed the tone

and melody and  now it became a song of grief, longing, heartbreak

and farewell. His song was heard and resonated throughout all the

seas and all the creatures of the ocean and those attuned to the sea,

like me, wept along with Zulee.

 

I was so moved by his aching melody that I took up my fiddle and

supplied the harmony. The seas buckled, the lands rumbled, and the

sky flooded the seas with its tears.  Zeezoo, the Matriarch of the

Greenlander packs, was so moved by Zazra’s song that she rescinded

her command  against Zulee and Zazra’s union. In a voice tinged with

sadness she said,

 

“your song has moved the Fiddler himself to tears. never has He lent

his music to a Song not of His own making. your song will live in our

hearts for generations to come. go to the Arcticfrost and have many

calf’s. you are both destined for greatness…

 

As I ended my tale I saw that a few of the young ones nodded off to

sleep. I took a deep breath, smiled and dived to the bottom of the ocean

where I laid my head on a bed of sand and watched a school of fish

swim by….

 

     

           

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

RC

08/30/15