Whales are lovely and precious creatures.

WHALES

Thuyen walked his son through the house blocks heading to the beach. He started to recall:

"When I was a boy, this whole town was only a small commune. The roads were sandy. Because there was no asphalt road, there were no cars and people had to walk. Now it has become a town, with asphalt roads built by the State. People have their own cars, and they can drive everywhere, just like in the city."

The son asked:
"Where did you go to school at that time?"

"I went to a small village school located there. Now it has been demolished to build new houses, while a new and bigger school was built in another area."

"Do people here still go fishing, Dad?"

"Yes, they do. But now they have to go much further. Sometimes, they go into international waters and get arrested themselves. When I was young, people just went into the sea and they could catch plenty of fish. But someone has made tiny meshes to catch all the small fish and shrimps. Some years later, the source of seafood became exhausted."

"As I know, in many civilized countries, governments prohibit fishermen from catching fish of small size."
"If our thinking is a little poorer than others', we can be left behind for decades, son."

"Dad, where are we going?"
"I am taking you to Nam Hai shrine where people worship whale bones."
The father and son went into the shrine, burned the incense and said their prayers. Afterwards, while they were observing the whale bone, the son asked:

"Dad, why do the people here worship the whale?"
"For fishermen, whales are the hallowed creatures of the ocean."
"I don't get it."

"Your grandfather was also a fisherman. He once told me that when his boat was heading to the sea, a storm suddenly came. You must know that at that time there was no satellite to forecast the weather for fishermen. Therefore, upon going to the sea, fishermen just looked up to the sky to predict the weather, which might be right or wrong. If the storm came, fishermen could see their death coming. What they could only do was to pray to God. Suddenly, a whale emerged and carried the boat to the shore safely before disappearing into the ocean. Your grandfather said that it happened very often to fishermen so they all believed that. If just a few people told the story, people might think it was made up. But many fishermen told the same story, so no one doubted it. Since then, fishermen have worshipped whales as the hallowed creature of the ocean."

"I was told that the whale accidentally emerged from the water and touched the boat, and that's why people mistook him for intentionally saving the boat."

"It must be proven before it's said, son. Whoever says that is so ungrateful. They were never on a boat under storms and saved by whales. All those saved by the whales could see very well how deliberately they emerged from the water to carry the boats to the shore, where most of their houses are. It was never by accident."

"Dad, why do some countries still allow people to hunt whales for meat, such as Japan and Norway? They don't seem to respect this hallowed creature of the ocean at all."

"You'll see that those countries are suffering from tragic disasters even though they're very civilized. There are many organizations trying to protect whales such as Green Peace and the International Whale Committee. They have raised their voices against those countries, but their actions are still limited to begging only."

The son respectfully worshipped the whale bone and said:
"I think some other countries have recognized this point. In a Star Trek movie, the spaceship Enterprise had an odd experience when turning back to Earth. It turned out that another huge spaceship was looking for a humpback whale they had brought to Earth hundreds of thousand years ago. Unable to find him, they decided to use a super-motor to sweep all ocean water out of the Earth. Of course, the Earth would end after water was swept away. So, to save Earth, the astronauts of Enterprise spaceship had to go back to thirty years in the past, look for any remaining humpback whale and bring them back to the present, to satisfy the needs of that huge spaceship. Thanks to that, the Earth was saved. Perhaps, the scriptwriter of the movie had the same idea that whales have special spirituality because they were brought from somewhere in the universe. Thus, Vietnam is not the only one that can see this. But why does such a civilized country as Japan not see this?"

"Son, people can easily become arrogant if they are so good. Anyone with talents will likely have this mentality. You are also a good student, you should be mindful of your arrogance or it'll cause you to do bad things."

Whales and some other animals have psychic intuitions that are even stronger than those of human beings. Not just animals, some plants like sagebrush also have strong psychic intuition. Some sorcerers can recognize the special ability of such plants, and take advantage of that to serve their purposes. (Humans are the smartest because they know how to take advantage of other species much better than them).
As whales have no skillful hands as humans, they cannot manage nature as humans do. Humans have both intelligence and skillful hands, so they can invent and produce a lot of stuff. Not only can they reorder nature but they can also destroy it at will. (When it comes to destroying nature, humans are a bit foolish).
Killing the sacred creatures with strong spirituality is cruel.

Humans cannot stop slaughtering yet. But the level of cruelty is based on what creatures are being killed.
Killing creatures with high spiritual development is brutal. Killing creatures with low spiritual development is less cruel.

The same principle applies in society. On the one hand, it would be unforgivable to kill a good and talented person, because it causes damage to society. On the other hand, killing a brutal criminal may not be considered a sin, and sometimes we can even be rewarded.

Whales are lovely and precious creatures. They are even regarded as the sacred creature of the ocean. People should open their hearts not only to each other, but also to highly spiritual creatures. Together, we can bring happiness and peace to the Earth.

We shouldn't think that the killing and hunting of whales out there is not related to us.
"It is related to our conscience, our wisdom, and our descendants' future."

Written by:
Janna

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