Connecting to Something More Powerful

by Karla Tedtsen, Gustavus, AK

Summer 1996

During the summer months my husband, Bruce, and I do fishing and whale charters in Icy Straits (southeast Alaska) which is where we live. During the eight or so years we have been doing these we have made several observations of those who elect to do such charters. Mainly I am speaking of the whale (experiencing) watching. . . .

It seems that many folks expect to watch the whales, but few expect to "experience" them. It is not unusual for us to have men on the boat who actually have tears in their eyes during the time we are out with the humpback whales. It used to surprise us, but no longer. It DOES surprise the men . . . and the women in their lives! After much thought I have come to believe that these folks are tapping into something they had heretofore denied in their lives . . . their spirituality. It seems when they are "up close and personal" with a 45-foot, 45-ton whale, they realize how small they are in the scheme of nature.

We have somehow "tamed" nature to the point where it is no longer a "happening" in our lives. If we haven't tamed it we have killed or obliterated it. But in Alaska, where nature swallows you up, you realize how insignificant the human species is. By that I mean only that we are dwarfed by God's magnificence.

Everyday we see His power. Everyday we experience our place in nature. . . . Realizing not everyone wishes to live this way, or can, I just can't help but feel that by controlling every aspect of our environment we have somehow managed to learn to survive without nature, and thus a powerful connection with God. Perhaps I am wrong, but when I see people with tears in their eyes after spending time with the whales, and they apologize while saying they didn't think they would react like "this," I smile and remind them of their spiritual selves, and suggest that perhaps they are connecting to something more powerful than a whale.