Dolphin Address 25 2003
August 15, 2003
Just a little while ago I was fooling around with Dusty and I saw some one running head over heels, shouting and other people come running.
Yesterday two girls in a quite unsavory canoodle with sound around, just because a dolphin swam close. Just out of the water a man with a very hoarse voice who asked me for directions for use for the dolphin: 'She's got to cure my throat'.
'Then you'd better go to a doctor'.
''They can't help me'.
It seems pretty exaggerated. Of course it is nice, when such a large and powerful being comes to you without trying to eat you. That she allows herself to be stroked without you having to be careful for not being bitten, kicked or spat upon. That she always smiles, even if you would pour burning oil over her. A smile as a dead giveaway.
But she is also said to be able to heal emotional wounds. There are plenty witnesses. Still one should exercise the sobriety of wondering how many of these problems would indeed be solved by a good conversation, a kind word or a passionate necking. Does the dolphin give us access to our own power? And what do we ourselves contribute?
'Children don't lie.' This lonely height they share with drunkards. Ever I saw a photograph of an autistic boy just before he went to the dolphins. He was sitting in a generous easy-chair, pressing himself against the arm-rest. On another photograph he just came from the dolphins and was sitting in the same easy-chair, easy indeed, loose and totally relaxed.
Is there a chemistry that occurs apart from our willpower? A curative power, beneficent in everyone's own way? Is the healing power of dolphins only true in its consequences? Just a few years ago in Dingle several dozens of people lived there, only to swim with Fungi. And these are not by definition unstable people. A number of them still lives in Dingle, an accountant, a journalist, the owner of an Internet café. They are still active with their unique website on 'friendly, wild dolphins' on
www.irishdolphins.com . And I have been into dolphins myself for 17 years.
Dolphins keep intriguing on all levels. As to-do-things that give no receipt. As reflecting your own expectation, with unexpected glances. As weightless love, as a breathtaking adventure, as the opposite of a trauma, a primeval soup experience.
Jan Ploeg, beyond 'Cul de Sac', August 15th 2003
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