I look around furtively because I am not ready to speak to anyone, yet. I notice many humans are quietly weeping. We are all avoiding eye contact with the beings in the large water tanks or on the vid screens and with each other. One woman is kneeling in front of a tank that holds many miniature cephalopods and is saying something to them that looks as if she is apologizing, begging forgiveness.
I path that most are feeling as I do.
The vid screens show whales, larger squid, dolphins, porpoises, octopuses, manatees, walruses and seals in their various habitats around the globe in real time, each with a fish attached somehow to an appendage. The sound is turned up enough for me to know that many are talking to each other and to us, but I can't make out the exact words and I don't move closer to hear better.
In our training area are saltwater tanks that hold smaller members of each species. I am both drawn to and repelled by each of them. My curiosity and desire to learn bring me closer; my guilt and shame push me away, immobilizing me.
How could I live on this planet for 60 years and not know most of this? How could I so cavalierly, blithely go about my days, all the while being so...so... HUMAN? I have been eating, supporting the killing and enslaving of and ignoring the plights of these amazing beings, for decades?
I adore calamari...as an appetizer!
I consider myself to be one of the "good guys," but I suck. I really do.
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