I recently saw a video that promptly directed me toward my keyboard. Along a public beach somewhere in the world, 30 dolphins swimming in the shallow waters near the shoreline had beached themselves. This was horrifying for me because— due to a chance encounter as a child—dolphins are the only sea creatures that don’t entirely freak me out. They are incredibly smart and, when they want to be, they can be sweet and a bit of show-offs. I have so much respect for them and concern for their well-being that what happened next in the video almost brought a tear to my eye. The beach-goers started pulling the helpless animals back into deeper water so they would not be left flopping on shore for people to take a quick selfie with. It was such a pure act that showed the precious connection we have with nature. We are part of nature; therefore, we must coexist with the other creatures that live among us.
Because we are animals with high intelligence, humans think they can control everything. We have forgotten what it was like to live in a place without artificial light. Forests are getting flattened to make room for more skyscrapers and suburban neighborhoods. We are filling this beautiful earth with our concrete jungles without even giving a second thought to the jungles that were there first. I know everything is always evolving and there is nothing anyone can do about that. All I want to see is a little more respect and coexistence. Maybe listen to the "Pocahontas" soundtrack once in a while, and you’ll get it.
At this point you might be thinking, “I don’t need to be reading this hippie bull crap. Down with nature, up with mankind!”. Believe me I love my big cities as much as the next guy. But if a wild animal happens to roam onto our streets, everybody starts freaking out. The animal doesn’t do anything, but we rush to call animal control to bring the tranquilizer guns. Those poor animals don’t know they have just walked into. So imagine you’re an animal in a forest and a gangly creature that stands on two legs and has no fur walks into your home. They know you’re there but they don’t care. The small ones throw rocks at you to try to get you to go away. It’s not very pleasant. We think we can do whatever we want because we have intellectual advantage over nature. But we forget nothing is ours and the trees, mountains and animals are just as much a part of this world as we are.
As a wise Native American created by Disney once said, “You think you own whatever land you land on.” We think that whatever land we come across is ours, but it’s not. It is the earth’s. We are only inhabitants that took over after a great extinction and will be here for what is only a second compared to the time the earth has existed and will continue to exist. We need to appreciate the soil that we live on and the creatures that live here with us. If ever you come across a beached dolphin, don’t be the person that stands there with the camera. Be the person that helps that poor animal back into the water so you and the animal can go on living and feeling like the relationship between man and nature is balanced.
