Made in Australia: Part III

When experiencing things from awe, the memories remain in the compartment of the mind that has no patterns and nothing to relate with. These unique happenings bubble up in our backward looking thoughts in a way that makes us ponder if they ever actually occurred. This mystifying phenomenon gives Jebediah the continued impression that all of it is heavenly.

Together they head down to the docks. The day is grey and the sea is flat. The air is moist, but that doesn't matter anyway when the plan is to get wet. They are invited on-board a small ship that plans to find creatures of deeper waters. As the ship navigates through the waves breaking upon the barrier-reef, the members aboard instantly turn from sea-sideliners to oceanic-observers. Migration season places the blow-whole giants right before their eyes.  The sprays and silhouettes from shore are now showers and mighty-swims from lazy tails. On the open-ocean it is difficult to understand the size of these living submarines, especially with their slow rolling motions allowing only portions of their bodies to be seen at once. However, other happenings of the sea help to give a better perspective.

Soon the attention of the ship was on a fin darting around the boat and between the whales. As the fin grows larger the tail and body also emerge. The shape of a dark-sand colored hammer-head shark appeares. In the presence of the massive mammals the man-eater seems cute as it loops nearer to the onlookers.

Not awhile later two fins appear and produce synchronized flapping towards the ship. An oceanic manta-ray flutters briefly on the surface to give a glimpse. Its gaping mouth could filter through a body boarder and its smooth back could hold cuddling lovers. However looking like a mere stingray in the foreground of the landless elephants, the egregiousness of the whales becomes more apparent. The crew buzzes with excitement as the marine displays are so wonderful and it is still morning. The passengers and sea people begin to intermingle and the duo are in the captains perch with the skipper and his first mate. Once again in awe, they smile and share enthusiasm in short spurts of words. Suddenly the first mate began belting an obnoxious howl, obnoxious only until all eyes fixed half a football field in front of the boat. Side by side, head to tail, fins wide opened, two entire Humpback Whales raise them selves above the water. Their white speckled bellies face up with arches elevating their core. They suspend as if being hoisted to the grey skies until with a geyser of a splash, they are gone. The entirety of the ship wails with applause and at last the gargantuan Humpbacks are fully unveiled. The spectacular state of awe was now shared between all.

The seas' jewels are being seen from the boat, but the diamond they all set out for is yet to be seen. In rare parts of the earth an enormous fish rises from the depths for brief moments. They surface to feed then disappear to parts of the ocean that are un-documentable. The Whale Shark is a being that will never be fully comprehended with a superficial perspective, however in this moment, Rosetta and Jebediah slip off the stern of the boat into the waters awaiting the sight of the elusive Whale Shark.

The water is clear, but in the vast emptiness of deep waters there is no understanding of distance. From the turquoise mist of the sunlit water a wide, thin ellipse becomes visible. As it comes closer it spreads into an oval. The head of the Whale Shark comes into full view. Jeb and the fish, and Rose and the fish, are eye to eye; only a fishing rods length between. The beast's head passes them and they watch it sucking in water, taking only the plankton and emitting jets of water out its rippling gills. They swim along side in line with the front fins. The animal is so big and they are so close, all they can see is white-teal spots and gills fanning open gently over a grey-blue skin. The fish moves its body slowly but its immense appendages displace pods of water, propelling it quickly to feed. Jeb kicks hard to keep up.

Jeb looks to his side, and through dive masks, looks at the eyes of Rosetta which have taken on the full depth of the open ocean. Witnessing a familiar being in an unfamiliar place allows Rosetta to appear as a marvelous tropical creature. He watches her watch and swim with the Whale Shark and sees three eternities all at once. He sees his own inner workings ticking and winding this moment into the compilation of moments that creates the galaxy he lives in. He also sees that she is in her own galaxy, that he will never truly experience. The third eternity is the Whale Shark's simplicity of swimming and eating without the monstrosities of the human experience. In swimming with the Whale Shark Jeb and Rose pass through a glimpse of its peace.

Jeb stops swimming and stares to watch all eight meters of the care-free giant glide past him, like a stranger waiting on the sidewalk for a bus to roll by. Now behind, he can see the tail fin is, from top to bottom, a length taller than he is. Jeb can see the grace of the Whale Shark's entire body. The massive tail wagging side to side across his field of vision resonates a flow up her entire spine like the flow of a trailing cape. The side wings span out and glide over imaginary sea winds with ease. This creates within Jeb the image of a loving demon and leaves him in awe. The world's largest fish begins to dive down with a simple majestic motion. The oceans fog begins to grow between Jeb and the Whale Shark. A haze of darkened spots remains but only for a long moment. She disappears, then nothing is left. The massive creature came to gain food, and left without harming a single life more than was necessary. She moves on and takes nothing with her. It is the kind of world that Jebediah and Rosetta dream of living in and it vanishes far from humanities reach.

Only an empty dark blue remains in Jebediah's galaxy. In the lack of all else, for only a brief infinity, he lives in the neutral space where all the stars of every galaxy sparkle from. He is in the world of Rosetta and in the world of the Whale Shark. However, by the time he is climbing back up on the boat his understanding of these worlds is lost. The water begins to dry from his body, and the entire encounter slides away into that compartment of the mind that can barely be recognized as reality.

Again sitting with the skipper Jeb looks to land and sees deep into the cape-range gorge covered with land-life and filled with mist. The creatures that dominate the foreign environment he entered on this day were once able to swim through the landscape he is accustomed to now. The rocking of the boat helps to steady his mind and he thinks; How can this story be told? Do the Humpbacks preserve the tale of how they came from land to sea? Does the Whale Shark recall when the hills were ocean floor? The truest nature has no dramas; there is no perpetual thinking to link the events, to relate the conversation. There is no need to tell the story.

The Osprey opens her wings, the Roo falls from his bounce, the Turtle brushes you by and the beings are detached from the displacement of space. Everything turns to nothing the instant it becomes, and nothing is...

...The skipper cuts the engine and the new silence brings Jeb's attention to the swaying waters just beyond the bow. Deep blue suddenly turns to rapid turquoise and out of a white upsurge The Father Humpback erupts into the air. 

 

The End...

 



Made in Australia: Part 2

It could be that Jeb has never woken after that moment; Rosetta may still be in a dreamy repose. The voyage continues and it is perfectly possible that they travel in a connected dream through natural perfection. The Mother lets down her hair and continues to show what gems are woven into her flowing locks.

Birds the size of a man and some the size of his hand come close enough to speak with. They are calm-blues and passionate-reds. Forests begin as scattered bushes and gather into dense walls of growth. Palms are sprawling fans catering to royalty and climbing vines escort rain drops gently to the forest floor. The tree gatherings, as wealthy as gold, are like a green endless sky.

There is a log across the path, with a teasing tongue. Of course it is a python, thick and long protecting her nest. The value of the diamonds curling down her back are unmatched in the human world. This world that still holds unimaginable streams of water leading their flow to sacred pools. A hidden gully in the rocks lets float a single lily sprouting a purple blossom. The flower hovering above the water is as auspicious as the final star that still remains in the early daylight. 

It all rises into view, just as lost treasure always comes up from the sea. Even the sea rises from her own depths when The Mother whispers. Jeb lays on a board pulling water with his arms and the wave lifts him as it approaches. Their momentum becomes one and Jeb stands to greet the wave. He glides across the surface of the wall of water. It still builds and he looks up to its peak as a boy looks up listening to his father speak. The rush takes him, the rush takes it all.

They arrive at dawn. Precise, persistent, pure fields of prairie bush sprawl and climb into a low mountainous range. Pale yellow light builds upon the scene and the land becomes as welcoming as the yellow drops in Rosetta's eyes. On the other side of this sun's cycle the yellow doesn't return. In the evening a radiant tiger's eye turns the day's youthful land into a limited sanctuary of the earth. The duo walk into the dazzling light to find hopping. Kangaroos, wallabies and wallaroos graze and bounce everywhere. They enter the field from every direction; it is a ballet of marsupials. Jeb has never seen such a show before and it even delights Rosetta as if she too were a foreigner. Awe continues.

Out in the back of the carnival of hopping, two Kangaroos stand tall in confrontation. One leaps off his feet and and lunges forward, springing himself off his tail. He extends both legs in a furious kick. The boxing partner defends the thrust with jabs from his stubby arms. This act goes back and forth and then as if there was no tension at all the grappling stops and there is no evidence that peace was disturbed. The dusk dance continues all around.

As Jebediah witnesses the boxer's interactions he forgets he is watching animals. He mistakenly projects the troubles of the human mind onto the Roos. He wonders; do they like the adrenaline rush of the fight? Are they frightened of the violence? Does the winner walk away feeling superior and perhaps having flutters of guilt? Does the loser feel ashamed and regretful? However as stillness returns, Jeb becomes disillusioned from his own mind. He sees that the regret and sorrow are only creations of the human mind, of his mind, and they do not exist in nature. The simplicity of being a beast is apparent to Jeb as he understands that the animals experience desire, excitement and pain, but they do not have the tragically complex thoughts growing off these feelings. As the Kangaroos stand down from their powerful postures the risings of the moment evaporate and dissipate. The encounter produces an insignificant effect on the environment and no evil spills into the next instant. To prevent intruding further on the peaceful grazing, Rose and Jeb leave the field; or maybe they leave to follow the attraction humans have to the setting sun. Either way they now head towards the beach to worship the heart of The Mother.

They sit on the cape and appreciate the adaptation to its place in the universe as being so unique that it can been mistaken for a different world. And with the going down of the sun the stage is set for the silhouettes of the sea to perform. The creatures of this place pop up out of the water as puppets drop from the rafters. Triangle fins run in waving lines through the amber reflections; a feeding frenzy brings fish twitching above the water in fright. Spouting streams of mist spray into illumination. Rolling arches from giants give partial form to the blowhole show. The incomplete secrets of the ocean reveal themselves, but when the eye (another world all together)  gets a glimpse of what is beyond it finds an infinite number of mysteries that are yet to be discovered.

The following morning, with snorkel mask and fins, Rosetta and Jebediah enter the water. From the shore the shallows seem like empty space. From inside it is apparent that they actually support many lives from a deep space. Coral clusters of poison-blue stick and stack like a pile of watery jacks. Others look like hundreds of violet brains and show the immense intelligence of it all. Further there is brilliant green-and-miniature Himalayan mountains. There are countless fish here as there are countless prayers repeated there. Rosetta sees an octopus defending its home with a swipe of the tentacle.She has a good eye for seeing the sea and Jeb hears her calling his name above the surface.  He looks towards the voice and sees her arm pointing through the water at a large sea turtle flapping its wings with a grace only found in this dimension. Jeb dives to see its face as one would when meeting someone new that they know they'll be spending much time with. The ancients used to think that the earth was a plate on the back of a turtle propelling through the universe. Jebediah wanted to rest on this shell and be carried away through the timeless space of the under-water.

In the infancy of another day Jeb sees the full-moon at dawn, a gold coin emitting reflected warmth into the brisk morning. He looks into a mirror showing the horizon at sunset half the globe away. He stares into the reflected eyes of those watching the spherical furnace lay down across the Americas.
Rose joins him and together they watch the sun and the moon trade places in the sky.

When experiencing things from awe, the memories remain in the compartment of the mind that has no patterns and nothing to relate with. These unique happenings bubble up in our backward looking thoughts in a way that makes us ponder if they ever actually occurred. This mystifying phenomenon gives Jebediah the continued impression that all of it is heavenly.

...Catch the final part soon and WATCH OUT!!!

Made in Australia: Part One

When a person seeks out what they desire they follow a thread that takes them further and further away from the norm. Unless they desire the norm, of course, and this is not the case for Jebediah. On his great ship of travel, each change in current leads to a more exotic culture. Across the pond in Europe, language was a new song. Further into Eurasia, Christianity was still medieval without even the trace of a cross. In the Middle East, the womb of civilization, he found fellows who fell to and raised up from their knees in prayer. Far East and heading South from there, even basic life functions were new rituals to be learned. In Asia's dense sub continent worship was found where flowers floated on the surface of water, while frozen crystals of the Himalaya hold solid the fluttering offerings on the roof-top of the human world. Just a moment at that peak altitude is all Jebediah shared before heading back to sea-level and so far East that he stepped back into the West. After experiencing a life's worth of wonders, entering into something familiar seemed a bit strange.

Australia is a vast island with only a few plots of its' land occupied. Here the youth gather in the cities. After they have accumulated enough supplies and have begun to turn grey, they turn to the beauty that is this country. Respect and appreciation for the lands and waters of Australia is a deeply rooted ritual of this piece of Earth. The worship here is to go out to the back where the dirt glows ocher and is glorified as a giver of life.

Jebediah grew in independence and internal sustainability while in the East, however in the wild palace of Oz there is a local bird to show him the way. Rosetta nests when she needs to, soars when ever she gets the right winds and forages for a smile where ever her heart lands. This pair of warm-blooded creatures plans a road-trip and ignites the hum of adventure.

Rosetta and Jeb toast the moment with a look in the eye and sip in the commencement through grinning teeth. The compass spins around and the only plan is beneath them in the pavement. Slowly slowly, they move away from Australia's newly built-up cities. In a port town, that barley sizes up, there are veterans of the road and a rough weather front gives them all an excuse to get along for a while. In the creeping shadows they catch some stormy swells, cook some sup, and chat about a dash of the deeper things. It turns out to be the last fluent conversation with others there'd be for some time. Just before the rains fell their heaviest, an Osprey spread her wing tips wide, gliding in the shallow sky.

Little by little all the steel fades in the rear-view and the sun climbs. The sun peaks and the pint-sized caravan rests under some beach-pines. Resting is a source of life, but the day and tyres move on toward the rise of the stars. Just before the sun's final descent they rumble off the paved road into isolation. They find nothing but the most valued human contribution, footprints. From this moment they became embedded in awe for The Mother. This awe, our most primal instinct.

There's a sandy swamp, a salty grove of bush, and a camp-spot on the dune of a shelly beach. In a place just close enough to the high-tide mark Jeb and Rose lay looking out upon the scene. They lived and they watched.

Blue-charcoal clouds mask the sun and pink-pastel strokes reveal its ever presence. She focuses her eyes, unsheathes her talons and swoops into view. With sprawling wings she drops onto the ocean-world and lifts a motionless fish from its final swim. The pair drift to sleep in awe.

It could be that Jeb never woken after that moment; Rosetta may still be in a dreamy repose. The voyage continues and it is perfectly possible that they travel in a connected dream through natural perfection. The Mother lets down her hair and begins to show what gems are woven into her flowing locks.

....Continuing soon, unless this guy gets you...