The Eye of the Whale…A true story by Jack Konopski

04 Nov 2010 6 Comments

by jack konopski in just saying, personal Tags: Falklands, freedom, islas malvinas., meditation, Orca whale, save universe, whales

Friend of mine sent me a copy of the first issue, July 1994 of a magazine she accidentally came across “Cristal of Light”, where for the first time i tried my english writings. please be nice.

For a long time, 14 years, to be exact, I have been suppressing my feelings connected with some fascinating experiences I went through while fishing (commercially) in the South Atlantic, between The Falkland Islands and Antarctica. I had been doing this for just under 5 years. The methods of fishing used by the fleet were barbaric. Needless to say, after awhile one starts to wonder whether one is in the right profession (as if killing could be considered a profession). Let me explain.
Imagine a fishing net in a shape of a sock. The kind of fish caught depends on the size of the net’s eyes. In other words, smaller eyes mean more fish of different sizes. The greed and thoughtlessness of the captain were endless. It was not enough that nets with the smallest eyes were used, but knowing that the catch would be huge, he used three nets set one into another, so it could hold thousands of pounds of fish without breaking. Almost every catch held some 60,000 thousand pounds of fish. Once pulled onto the deck of the ship, the nets looked like a perfectly shaped 60 foot long and 10 foot long diameter tube full of squashed, dead fish. Now imagine a container, the shape of a gas tanker, similar to those you can see on the road, full of dead fish parked in your garden. You and your third generation could have a supply of the fish for the rest of your lives. I shall leave the rest to your imagination.
Having given you some idea of the environment I worked in, I would like to go to the original idea of the article.
First, let us step out of the ship and see what is there … ocean … ocean … and more ocean. Visualize yourself standing on a huge segment of silk with the colors of a rainbow; one of those you see once a lifetime. Whatever direction you look, the nearest point you can see is the horizon. The gracefully waving silk is so big, that to get to the first shore you need six days of sailing. After four months of rocking at sea you look for something else, something different. On one of those days I sat on the upper deck watching the sea hoping to see the “different”.
At this point I have to let you into my heart a bit. I am one of those lucky people who during their lives go through many exciting moments. Unfortunately, immaturity of my spiritual life did not allow me to fully understand, or even be aware of the relevance of those moments and fully appreciate them at the moment of their occurrence. However, (luck again, I suppose) my subconscious felt that those moments should be registered for future reference. Sometimes it takes 5, 10 or more years for the subconscious to recall those events as it decides when our conscious mind is ready to receive them. That’s what happens to me all the time now.
Again, I was lucky to meet some wonderful people who were kind enough to introduce me to different points of view toward life, and more importantly, different points of view towards our home, the Universe. At first it was difficult to see, and believe me, it often still is. Once I started adjusting certain aspects of my prospective, my subconscious suddenly started to recall all the events from the past which it decided were important to me now.
So, let’s go back to “the upper deck” and see what happened. I was watching for the “something else” for hours. When all of a sudden, I started to feel something that could be compared to the “high”, similar the “high” drug addicts feel. I got “goose bumps” all over my body. I did not understand why, because I had another four months at sea before returning home. Going home usualy did it. I looked closely and, there they were. At first I could see one, then two or more black spots miles away from the ship. I did not understand why, but my eyes desperately clenched to those spots as if in fear of loosing them. The “computer” in my head started to match these shapes with any and every shape I might have seen in the past. Nothing. Then, I was overcome by this feeling I had when I was a little boy.
There was a film about a scientist who transplanted his dying son’s lungs with fish lungs, so he could live at the very least, under water. Ever since I had a dream to live under water. FREE!!! And ever since that time I had a strong bond with the water. Besides living at the sea side, I was a life guard, free diver and a yachts man. Freedom to me, was somehow connected with the water. The boy has grown, but the dream is still alive.

The spots disappeared unrecognized. Yet, the feeling of freedom was with me stronger than ever before. I thought I was going mad.It has happened in the past, that sailors thought of the silky sea as of a huge highway and wanting to walk home, stepped out of the board of the ship.
I thought, why? Before I finished wondering what was happening to me, the sea opened up. No further than a hundred feet away from the board of the ship, three graceful (like in slow motion) bodies of Orka the “killer” whale appeared. I was totally ecstatic! I felt like shouting, but I could not. I felt like going down to my cabin for my camera to take pictures, but I could not move. So, speechless and motionless I watched. I watched and wondered, how such huge bodies could jump so high and yet, so gracefully and gently enter the water back again. Again … and again … and again. They were swimming in a certain pattern. Cross passing each other’s way as to try to stop themselves. I felt
my body completely lost its weight. For a moment I felt like swimming with them. Swimming to FREEDOM!!!
Only the unknown powers of the Universe knew what could have happened to me if the horrible noise of the electric bell did not bring me back to reality announcing that the nets are being pulled up. First thought…yet another senseless catch …
Forty minutes later, the triple sock, packed up to its limits, was lying on the deck. In a situation like this, the crew usually gets very excited. This time to my disbelief, there was silence. I knew something terrible had happened. Someone looked out and spotted the whales in the water. They were motionless, waiting. Back on the deck, the net was opened and there she was; a fifteen foot long female whale. I approached the body. The closer I got the stronger I could feel the pain in my chest. She was dead. The pink tongue was sticking out, the blood was all over, and the eye …
I could see sadness in it. It was telling me … “this is what is going to happen to you if you follow the rules of your society. There must be a way out of here … ” Suddenly, I felt like I was in a cage. I knew the other whales were waiting for their companion, and there was nothing I could do to help.
Sailors and Seamen are very superstitious and are the coldest people, but this time we all were moved. One mindless deck hand tried to cut the whale, but his knife wouldn’t go through her body. I felt it was a sign from God. There was silence on board that you could have cut it with a knife. Later we also had a human death on board.

A month later, in December of that year, martial law was proclaimed in my country. Two months after that, while in the gulf of Port Stanley, (the capital of the Falkland Islands), I was with several fellow seamen in a lifeboat having a little “recreation” trip around the ship. No prmission to go ashore. Out of nowhere, there was the beautiful little dolphin with the snow white strip on her head. We tried to follow her and I realized that she was leading us to the shore. When it was time to head back to the ship, there were suddenly ten, then twenty or more of them trying to stop us from going back to that ship of death.
However, we shortly received the message we were all waiting for and the Captain agreed that we could indeed visit the Port. We headed toward shore immediately and the dolphins were accompanying us all the way. I knew that I was to become a free man as I decided to stay on the island rather than return to the ship and everything connected with her.
The freedom did not come easily for in April of that same year, the Islands were invaded by Argentina and I found myself in the middle of a fully blown military crises. Yet another, eventful chapter of my life had begun. But, I guess I would need a book to let you know all about it. Agreed?

So, almost fourteen years later while experiencing meditation for the first time, the initial image that appeared to me was the eye of the whale … smiling!

Jack would like to hear from people all around the world to share stories from all walks of life. He is also writing a book. Having German & Russian in his heritage, he has spent a years in Poland, England, S. America, Brazil, Argentina, Israel, & many others. Jack is very hungry to experience people and we will be happy to forward all
mail, unopened, to him. ****

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