The pride of men...

We sometimes manage to convince ourselves that we are very different than our ancestors. But how much, really, have we changed? Read this.

We finally finished the job our ancestors started a hundred years ago. Reading the article I was struck by a feeling of incredible sadness. The world lost something ancient and free and irreplaceable when men finally managed to kill this creature. It was older than many nations, older than any men have ever lived, older than two world wars, older than atomic bombs and the automobile. I feel dwarfed in comparison, humbled by a world I can not even imagine. What right, what right do we have?

When I was a little girl my parents had a recording of whale song. Their record system was in the basement, the speakers mounted on the walls far above my head. I would sit on the floor with my eyes closed listening as the whale song rolled over me. Their voices were haunting and magical. Not other-worldy but so eerily Earthly, so filled with the stuff of Creation that they made the hair at the base of my skull stand on end. They were the voice of that Creation: they were the stars singing, the aria of a galaxy, the voice of the ocean trenches and the cosmic deep.

They were humpbacks who sang on that record, not bowheads. But as I read this story I felt as if one of the ancient singers from my childhood had gone suddenly silent.




Find the recording here: Whale Song