shepherds, spades & oz.

a few years back, which at this moment seems like a number of years ago, i was in the twin cities for a blessed wedding beside the mississippi.  there was a crew of goodfellas attending and we all were lucky enough to share the floor of a good friend's home, a roof to sleep under even though it meant we would have to all share the floor. i do remember some brilliant photographs from that big bed that was a floor, wooden maybe, possibly stone.

for some reason during those wonderful many days, the last time in fact i was in the land of 10,000 lakes as far as i reckon, we ended up hanging late night and watching a couple episodes from the first year of the television show Whale Wars. At that time, the show was mesmerizing, a bunch of young folks working a ship they didn't seemingly know how to run that well, in the hopes of tracking down whaling ships from japan in order to halt the killing of whales. A noble cause for certain.

I didn't hear much about the folks from Sea Shepherd, since then, though i did know they still did their thing, had many more ships, one thanks to the price is right and that they were still working harder than ever trying to stop the killing of whales. And probably, I thought, more mature in their tactics and helicopter flying.

One of the boats from the Sea Shepherd was docked here in Wellington this week, preparing to depart for the southern seas (though the whaling ships hadn't left japan just yet and thus their extended stay in this here port of call). Alas, I went on the tour mid-week and checked out the in and outs of the ship that is docked beside the Te Papa Museum. This whole week I certainly thought about the history of activist ships here in New Zealand, the Rainbow Warrior specifically.

It was a beautiful week here in Wellington, blue skies, mellow breeze and a touch of time for contemplation, though never enough. Tomorrow I'm off to Oz-land for a few days. It's been a minute since I last explored the parched earth that is aussie. For a conference I venture, different from the month with a bunch of crazy Carls, but hopefully will be wild in a new and academic kinda way. We'll sea, only time will tell...

love and health to all...