Thursday, May 19, 2005

Save our coast lands

Last night, I stop by the Mercedes Trish residence to pick up my t-house bug screen that I'd left with her to repair. I end up showing her a couple Bardo surfer posts which luckily delayed my exit long enough for Dimitri and Danny to stop by. We sat around on Trish's couches and channel surfed her satellite TV for how ever long. Trish ran out for booze and junkfood and Danny remained in charge of the remote, complaining about the content of each show and then changing to another station. Trish returned with potato chips, cheetoes, peanut m&ms, a milky way, cup cakes, a whatchamacallit and rollos.

It is then that Danny pulls out a VHS copy of a 10 minute documentary that he created in one night for a city council meeting in Hawaii. Danny used to be an editor/writer/director for various Hollywood productions. After several years he made up his mind to retire and pursue other interests. He ended up in Hawaii and was soon recruited by the native Hawaiians to help preserve and protect their coastal land from development.

One of the Hawaiians asked Danny to go down to this one bay that is in the sights of a developer. He only has this one afternoon because the city council takes place the next day. When he arrives, no one is there. He thinks: oh great, what am I going to do? As if his thoughts have been answered, a monk sea lion surfaces, only 10 yards away. The sea lion looks at Danny and lazily swims around yawing and glistening in the afternoon sunshine.

Monk Sea Lions are not supposed to be in Hawaii according to the experts. They are an endangered species and are one of the oldest mammals on the planet.

Suddenly, a large family arrives. They are very excited at seeing the sea lion. Danny was able to film the animal for 2 hours. Now he has a family to film as well. He encapsulates this amazing afternoon into a 10 minute documentary.

The next night Danny presents his afternoon experience. People are crying. The mayor says: "The deal is sealed." A few of the natives come up to Danny and thank him. Every one is blown away. They have trouble believing that he filmed it in the bay and that he did it yesterday. But of course it is true. This world is so much more intelligent and aware than we have been led to believe.