Human Instincts Tested

-July 1995-

I woke abruptly from my dream, drenched from my too bright imagination. Panting, my eyes adjust to the moonless night in search of my jar of water. I find it, clumsily bringing it to my parched mouth and gulp down still cool liquid. Drinking almost half of the jar I sighed, pleased with being alive, my family surrounding me, safe and grateful that it is late enough to fall back into sleep. Praying, for my son’s safety and my own tranquility into sleep, I go back into slumber.

That oncoming morning, I am back in the very ocean that caused my night terror, in the depths of the Pacific with my son. The future heir of the Honorable Medicine Man to our humble village. I am following him to the bottom, his first of what would soon be many times leading, beyond where we usually go to collect the food that feeds our family.

This trip is different not solely because of location but because of our mission. Years of storytelling and months of preparation accomplished, I want to believe in my son, but anything can happen. Wild and carnivorous fish are involved, and my son, fierce, bashful and ready to prove his right, is taking the lead.

-July 1985-

We have fished this water generationally and have faced great whites from time to time, willing to show our ferocity and spirit to an animal that could tear us to pieces. I remember my first dive with my father, coincidentally as we looked for dinner, a great white, large and intimidating, leered toward us, eyeing our large tuna in my father’s hands.

My father’s back was turned. So, no screaming and no hesitation allowed in my heart, I was face to face with a fish bigger than my larger-than-life father. With a gulp of courage and spear in my hand I jumped at the creature, daring it to come close to my ‘ohana'. We made eye contact, and I readied my spear, desperate to fight for what we so hungrily searched and captured. Life itself was on the line, and I knew to not have fear’s energy creep in; energy too important regarding a creature that operates purely on instinct, letting this fish know how I wanted to swim away, to turn to my father, and run into the safety of his presence wasn't happening. Then I felt it, my father’s energy field within the water, so much like when on land but somehow more-so.

Confidence, alpha and… respect.

I was surprised to say the least, but years of training conditioned me to keep down my heart rate, even shock can be read as a weakness. He was the Chief, an energy all its own. Although everyone chooses to honor his title, he often told me of how he had to honor their decision as their leader. Even though Medicine Man is passed down, there is still rigid training, lives and livelihoods lay in the hands of our Head and Elders. His aura, sharp yet unintimidating pulsed, the shark left, and I smiled in relief and admiration through diving gear.

When we arrived home, I was coached that I was on the right track but that I was just a bit aggressive.

I paled, launched to my feet to defend my honor, “We could have been his lunch! He smelled the blood and looked hungry,” I said, distaste and anger palpable in my voice.

I was met with a raised brow, the only counter my father would have ever needed. He sipped his tea to warm his bones, draped in leather and hair toweled, unbothered by my attitude.

I wisely sat, knowing my temper flare was dully noted in his mind. I sat, knowing to weigh my actions both in the water and in our living space. Quietly I contemplated, the smell of herbs and spices as mother quietly prepared for our dinner in our kitchen relaxed my tension.

Finally, “You treated ‘it’ with respect,” I said dumbly, unable to hide my awe.

“’It’ was here before humans were thought of, dear one,” his tone patient and quiet.

The electricity charged in the word ‘it,’ physically shocked me. My young mind wondered, and that night in my dream I was met with a shark, possibly the same from that afternoon. Waiting for me to swim with him, escorting me through the ocean, tranquil and lithe movements with no words. It was bliss and I felt safe.

Words that I fail to interpret into any language couldn’t explain what happened next, but I was taken to another shark, one that looked prehistoric. Revealed to me was a Matriarch: protector and raw knowledge, and I was flooded with information. The sharks are ‘beings’, not just monstrous but intelligent warriors that guarded what I can only describe as something more.

Then, I awakened to storms outside our home, and I excitedly woke my father to share what I witnessed, my experience. He knowingly smiled and told me I was ready. There, on a night of a ripened moon, we traveled to where only he and the elders were allowed, taking out scrolls upon scrolls, and we read together in the moonlight. When the morn approached, knowledge, ancient civilizations, and power were at the forefront of my mind.

With nearly no sleep, we traveled to a distant cave, on a secluded area of the island, I thought previously for safety of our people, but walking in an almost-barrier surrounded cave, let me know it was for the preservation of the cave.

The cave was illuminated, but I saw no source of light. On the wall, language the same as some of the older scrolls, decorated the wall. Not only was there information about our relation to sharks but of dolphins and whales. For three days we visited that cave, and this is when my own deep respect of these marvelous creatures began. As long as our people inhabited this island, we’ve communicated with them, and it is the want of that continued relationship’s growth that brought forth the Medicine Man’s prowess centuries ago.

From then on, once weekly I went to the more tourist islands, learning about the smaller cousins of the great white, black tipped sharks, and diving with them. The year was 1987, and for nearly ten years I dived with confidence, even happily with those sharks, of course with other counterparts, like a turtle I named Douglas, but with strong likening to the sharks. Enlisting myself to clean the growing debris left by man and compassion grew for the animals’ whose homes were being invaded. Sometimes, I’d mingle with the college people that dove, conversing and sharing knowledge on land.

I learned the ways of the Medicine Man at home and took my dives of the populated islands as my anchored wisdom. ‘Fear is instrumental of life or death but ignorance with no intuition is even more deadly’ is how I’ve come to cope with the reality and perspectives of the world around me. With the release of ‘Jaws’ a decade or so previous the amount of people that vacationed the main islands, spreading fear and literal shark tales, relations between sea and land were rockier than ever.

I contemplate all of these things as I come back from my adolescence and young adulthood, following my son now, to the deep of an underwater cave on his first swim to our mission, where this particular practice had first begun by me. I watched him settle at the bottom, bag and spear in one hand, and I join him. When I traveled to the main islands this is a regular occurrence: sharks with pollution on their bodies.

Some years later, my son accustomed to our newfound tradition and my father, no longer a teacher but observing and helping, saw these magnificent great whites come up to us. Not looking for food but for help. And, obliged and honored, we did. Shortly, we’d become known in their world, some of them would come in twos, one we’d already helped bringing a friend. One case so bad, the dorsal fin grown around a soda-pop plastic ring, and hours went by of us sawing the plastic engraved in the strong cartilage of the body. Even once encountering a bull shark, foreign to our island.

So, now included in the sacred practices, we (the sharks and I) meet in this cave, to clean and check on their health. I look at my son with pride, knowing he too, shall leave this world with a legacy of mending the gap of land and water.

--Present Day--

Over twenty years since, and I have the privilege of speaking at universities on the main islands, people coming from far for the information I hold to give, no longer considered superstitions. Documented as “scientific proof” on modern technologies, tales, like mine, with different villages across the world who have access to our aquatic counterparts on Earth, have been proven. There are ancient secrets hidden in the soul of this precious creature, if fear doesn't consume you first.

Seekers and the empathetic are helping to voice the message, even if they must make it relatable to persons in their daily lives. Some must be hit with just how much their personal lives will be impacted. Lots of people do not care for things that happen in water, intangibly far, in a world that seemingly does not affect them. Happily, there is a contrast, a conglomerate of people that have come together to not only save the bodies of water and the creatures in them, but also of sharks.

Sharks make up an important part of the ecosystem, and without them, we would be in a world of danger, lives disrupted. And though my term of Medicine Man is retired, my only son, an adult with children and the future of our island and I still teach at these universities and have been approached with conservation specialists, telling me of the work being done. That I’d inspired many and put to rest invalid fears of creatures we are just beginning to understand.

And I smile, hope daring to soar in my heart, as I see the faces of the youth, unintimidated and fearlessly passing on what it means to dive deeper and to care for those who do not speak. Then I dare to daydream of a world where balance is restored and our power as human beings recognized for the positive change that we can foster to grow.