The sea, from above, always looks so scary. A distorted version and poor mix of colours, shades and depths. Though I could happily swim in the sea - provided I didn't go out too far - I wasn't quite ready to bring clarity to the ill-manufactured still.
One beach day on holiday I finally made a pact to at least look. Snorkelling was what people do on holiday. I had pet fish at home. When I got older, maybe I wouldn't want to do handstands and play on surfboards all my life (in that there was needless worry). I ought to just check.
I was speaking with a friend, who, if I remember rightly, was in the midst of a full-fronted ramble. I dropped the hairband that I had on my arm at my feet on purpose as I slowly zoned out, paddling my feet in the sea.
"Oops!" I whispered, stopping her momentarily. I pulled the goggles I had been twirling on my arm onto my face and bent to pick up the band.
The water was so clear and there were little grey fish ebbing away from my black hairband that was drifting with the current. I grabbed it and surfaced.
"Wow!! It's a different world down there!! It's a different world down there!!"
My friend was unfazed. I suppose she had already seen the spectacle that had shocked me so much.
Steadily a love of the sea developed and encapsulated everything I did. I went home and swapped Barbie's for plush lobsters and fish and a box. I made my own aquariums and watched reefs on TV.
Still to date one of my favourite programmes is "Blue Planet". I can't get enough of the majestic ways of the sea and how, as humans, we have been purposefully denied the priveledge of being part of the underwater world.
I would say that God made us without the capabilities to breathe underwater or produce a film over our eyes to fashion homemade goggles. But, if you don't believe in God, and believe in evolution instead, the concept still holds. We have been denied that opportunity. It was only because of human skill and craftsmanship that we have protruded on the land of the fish.
However, there are many lessons to be learned from the sea.
When the Killer Whale comes into any animal programme or conversation, I squirm inside. I've watched countless attacks of Killer Whales on baby Humpbacks and the process doesn't seem fair.
So, there I was looking for something less gruesome than another episode of Heroes, when along comes a nursing mother and baby on Blue Planet. You can almost tell by David Attenborough's voice that there is some malicious content on it's way. This Killer Whale pod chases a mother and baby for 3 hours. Then once the baby is tired enough, they separate it from the mother, drown it, kill it, eat it's tongue and leave it. 13 months carried by the mother. Something like a month of Earth and gone - all for it's tongue.
We can almost match this injustice with our own kind. Murderers; who take lives for no reason. People who steal babies. Arsonists; who start fires. All for what? Not much more than a tongue.
But, even though I had seen the wonders of the underwater world, I was still fairly scared and it took me a while to go out and swim in the delicate covering of the bikini, knowing that I was exposing myself to the fish and (moreover) jellyfish. It wasn't a very inviting welcome!
But after a while, every beach meant snorkelling. Every empty shoreline meant going deeper. And every glimpse of coral meant finding more.
I absolutely love the sea, and though I don't believe that as humans we were ever given the right to steal glimpses of the sea, I so glad that we have.
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