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Wednesday, March 2, 2011

Will You Be There?

When I was little I didn’t want to be a princess or firefighter. Do little girls even want to be firefighters? My family was never good at playing the what-do-you-want-to-be-when-you-grow-up-game. My oldest brother wanted to be a taxidermist. Like that makes any sense. Name one little kid who wants to be a taxidermist and turns out sane. The other brother wanted to be a priest because they get to drink wine. AA much?

I wanted to be a Marine Biologists. Although, I called it a Free Willy trainer.

Somewhere along the line I realized that I had a fear of sharks, and sadly they too are marine animals. So I abandoned the biologist thing REAL fast. But I have always had a fond liking for cetaceans.

Recently, I watched a documentary called The Cove. (If you have Netflix go watch it right now. It is instant). It took me two years to work up the courage to watch this movie. I knew it would break my heart. The documentary focuses on the massive dolphin slaughtering in Taiji, Japan, and the selfless work of Ric O’Barry in his quest to end cruelty to cetaceans.

Ric O’Barry was one of the trainers for the original Flipper TV series. After Kathy, the main dolphin who played Flipper, committed suicide in O’Barry’s arms, O’Barry committed his life to freeing confined dolphins. During The Cove, O’Barry is asked how many times he has been arrested; his response is “This year?”

For over 45 years O’Barry has dedicated his life to fixing a wrong he felt responsible for. And while watching this film I found myself in absolute awe. If I could live my life with an ounce of O’Barry’s passion I would be complete. O’Barry felt responsible and he wanted to change things.

And he is changing things.

It’s a sad reality, but O’Barry inspires hope.

All I want to do when I grow up is be passionate, inspire others, wonder in absolute awe. I might not be able to save dolphins from captivity but I can save myself from being confined. I can break through my fears (I suppose that includes the shark one).

I can make a difference.

And so can you.

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