Scar The Humpback Whale
Once upon a time. I want to start by saying that because it was before my near-death experience when this happened. Now that I look at it with the help of Spirit, I see it much differently. Now I understand this story as a much more rewarding experience.
When I was the chief engineer of a research vessel, we worked with a small tethered submarine off the New England Coast. We noticed that the Humpback Whales were migrating along the coast as we arrived at the worksite. One whale, in particular, became well known to us. We nicknamed her Scar. She came close to too many sightseeing boats. So close that the ships had run her over, and her body was covered with propeller scars. We figured that Scar was either very friendly or stupid, and she was a nuisance to shipping.
We were working on the ocean floor with our remote-operated submarine (ROV). Part of the job required us to launch the submarine every day to survey the ocean floor. To launch the ROV we lowered the submarine and its cage into the water. After the cage was submerged, the small submarine would undock from the cage. Then remote operators would fly/swim the submarine to the seafloor. My job as chief engineer was to ensure the submarine was in proper working order. After the submarine was in the water, I would typically attend to other ships’ duties. But Scar made this job very different.
When the submarine would start to work its way down, Scar would swim under the submarine and begin bringing the ROV back to the surface. This, of course, drove the operators crazy. There was no way to keep Scar from doing this, wasting valuable time and money. We assumed Scar thought the small sub was a baby, and she was trying to bring it closer to the surface so that the baby could breathe. She didn’t want the ROV to swim so deep, so she wanted to help it. The scientists and the operators couldn’t think of any way to stop Scar. Then someone thought maybe a diver could distract Scar long enough to get the sub on the bottom. Once the sub was on the bottom, Scar would leave it alone.
A Neat Solution
I was the lucky one chosen to go out and distract Scar. Before launching the ROV each day, I would get into our zodiac (a small rubber boat) and play around to attract Scar. She was never far from our Research Vessel. When Scar would come, she would roll on her side to look at me with her huge eye. When Scar looked at me that way, I felt like she was looking into and through my soul. It was a strange yet wonderful feeling. Then I would get out of the boat and swim with Scar until the ROV was on the bottom, and the ship would signal me.
Everyone thought there must be something wrong with Scar. But no one wished her any harm. After a few days of this, she no longer came by to visit. The call of migration and her natural rhythms probably pulled her away. But we all remembered and joked about her.
A New Reality
Many years later, after my near-death experience, I was hiking one day when Spirit reminded me of Scar. Spirit helped me see how this experience in my life was meant to demonstrate unconditional love and the beauty of nature. Scar was not crazy, and there was nothing wrong with her. I remember her eye looking at me. As I recall this now, I can feel her unconditional love.
The strength of love overcame her fear of us. One of Scar’s roles in life was to show everyone how beautiful a Humpback Whale is. She would roll on her side and take a look at us. She was willing to undergo the pain of being run over so that she could look at us and communicate love to us. She would show us what beauty and love are. I now wish I understood this when it was happening to have helped my shipmates comprehend that she wasn’t crazy.
Unconditional love is more extensive than we are. We have trouble understanding it. When we love someone, we expect them to respond in a certain way. (That’s putting a condition on love) Unconditional love is endless and unifies everyone and everything in this universe. (Large isn’t it) It’s hard for us to constantly think this way as humans, so for us to conditionally use love is more manageable. To keep it simple would be to love unconditionally. We keep adding a step to our love and making it complicated. Maybe that is why so many think of love as troublesome. If we expected nothing in return for our love, that would be a more genuine love.
Everything we do in life is to either give love or receive love. Whether in our work or play, we always try to show love or receive love. Every human action is trying to do one or the other because we all want to be loved. The societies that humanity has built were built on human emotions. As messed up as they might seem, they give us all the ability to live the life we choose to live.
Every act we perform is a call for love or to give love. Even the emotions that we think are negative are ends to a means for love. Greed, hatred, and hostility are acts of emotion. We do this to make ourselves into what we think will make us be loved or give love. Your gardening or the intense effort you put into work are all making you the person who will receive love or be able to give love. Because love is everything and everything is love. So when we can love unconditionally, we will be a different person and have made a giant step for humanity.
This is a beautiful truth about scar they like all animals are our teachers.