Friendship is bigger than we know

I recently watched the film "The Whale," and I was mesmerized.  This film is quietly, profoundly beautiful.  To me, it is about intimacy, it is about connection, and we see through the teachings of a youngster how much we have given up when we decided to lock ourselves up in geometric structures feeding on manufactured foods and television screens, afraid, indeed, afraid to touch or be touched and lost from our natural path.

From the official film website http://www.thewhalemovie.com/story.php: 

"THE WHALE tells the true story of a young, wild killer whale - an orca - nicknamed Luna, who lost contact with his family on the coast of British Columbia and turned up alone in a narrow stretch of sea between mountains, a place called Nootka Sound.

Orcas are social. They live with their families all their lives. An orca who gets separated usually just fades away and dies.  Luna was alone, but he didn’t fade away. There weren’t any familiar orcas in Nootka Sound, but there were people, in boats and on the shore. So he started trying to make contact. And people welcomed him. Most of them.

This contact did not turn out to be simple. It was as if we humans weren’t ready for him.  Inspired by myths, we look into the sky, not the depths, for others who might think and dream like us. We train radio telescopes on the stars, and listen for code in the static of space. But maybe we’re looking in the wrong place. So far, space just crackles, but the sea whistles back. And, in Nootka Sound, it sent us an open-hearted child.

This story is about what happened then."

The mythologist Joseph Campbell tells us about the progression of the human gaze.  There was a time when we were gatherers, living off the land, and finding what we needed to survive solely in the plants of the land.  The plants, those life-giving beings, were holy to us; and worship and ritual was offered to their honor.  Later, hunters turned their gaze to the animals.  Prior and consequent to going on the hunt, hunters would engage in ceremony, and once an animal was sacrificed, it was honored and thanked for the gift of its life, to sustain the life of the hunters and their families.  As such, we saw our place within nature and animals were worshiped as holy.  At some point our gaze turned to the stars and the heavens.  Religions that looked upward certainly looked down on the plants and the animals, and humans placed themselves apart from and above the Earth, the plants and the animals.  And it is here that we find ourselves today, separated from our natural place and thinking that because we are better, we have permission (manifest destiny) to exploit the others.

The film makers ponder:

"For many years we have been curious about what it will be like when an extraterrestrial appears among us. Will things be chaotic? Will they be exciting? Will they be dangerous? Will there be controversy? How will we recognize this stranger? What will we share? Will this be joyful? Will it be sad? Will it be the best thing that ever happened?

Maybe it will be all those things. Maybe it will be just like what happened when a little lonely whale tried to make friends with us lonely humans in a place called Nootka Sound.  THE WHALE celebrates the life of a smart, friendly, determined, transcendent being from the other world of the sea who appeared among us like a promise out of the blue: that the greatest secrets in life are still to be discovered."

And so it was, this youngster brought us a message that I believe we ignore at our peril.  We need each other.  It is only with deep, meaningful connection that we can survive and thrive.  We are all connected whether we acknowledge this fact or not.  We can push ourselves through traffic into sterile buildings through stressful days back into the car only to collapse after just barely keeping up.  Or we can decide to say no.  We can choose to get to know who we really are, who those that share our lives really are and how we fit into nature.  It will be the best thing that ever happened.