The children of the sea - the origins

[UM-Bot]

Jann Burner: Until the 1980's most kayaks were of the white water variety, fast and maneuverable on a swift moving river but short, low in volume and relatively unable to hold a straight line on the ocean. They offered an exhilarating ride but little encouragement to travel. The long distance cruising kayaks that we are so familiar with began to make their appearance in large numbers upon the West Coast of North America around the year 1985. Seemingly overnight ocean kayaking centers began to spring up and increasing numbers of cruising kayaks were to be seen in and about the bays and estuaries of the West Coast of the United States and Canada. These touring boats were much larger than their brothers of the river, being usually fifteen to twenty feet in length and capable of carrying one, two or even three people with adequate supplies over long distances in safety and relative comfort.

By 2005 hundreds of men and women were observed cruising the coastal waters between Alaska and the Sea of Cortez. In the summer of the year 2007 U.S. Coast Guard spotters in Northern California observed three hundred kayaks pass Point Reyes headed South. The emergence of these Sea Gypsies, as described by the media of the day, can be explained in part by the Crash of '08' which drove a failing economy over the edge and sent untold millions to the streets and to the woods in search of work, food and personal freedom. For a lot of people on the coast at this time the initial step off onto the sea seemed most natural. For a minimal initial investment they found essentially unlimited freedom. With a well outfitted ocean kayak they were tied to neither gas station, welfare office or complex industrial technology.

At first the small boats were almost unnoticed upon the bays and inlets of Washington, British Columbia and California, mostly they belonged to day trippers out for a frolic in the sun. But, as their numbers grew, the more adventuresome began to take to the unprotected waters of the coasts, intent upon duplicating and expanding upon the adventures of those early, near legendary cruisers like Romer, Lindemann, Caffyn, Dyson, Gillet and many others too numerous to mention. Eventually some hearty souls began to actually live on the water, travelling the coastal shoals, obtaining their protein from the ocean as well as the coastal forests and the remainder of their nutritional needs from the new seaside gardens.

The government of the day, ever anxious to break up pockets of poverty or at least keep the poor out of sight, turned a blind eye to the public vegetable gardens which began to spring up along the Pacific Coast from Alaska to Mexico. Soon countless kayakers began to follow the crops south, harvesting apples in Washington and artichokes, asparagus and brussel sprouts, among other items, in California. The route very quickly became known as the Veggie Trek and its boundaries were expanded every year.

Suddenly there was a new breed of savage. Usually college educated, these kayakers equipped with fish line and snorkeling gear became the gypsies of the sea. With the introduction of cheap water makers in the early nineties and small solar-powered auxiliary motors by '04', many individuals began to complete the entire circuit between Glacier Bay and The Bay of Conception, on the East coast of the Baja peninsula, within a year and a half. This activity was called Coasting and these adventurers referred to themselves as The Children of The Sea.

***

Long after dark, long after we had pulled our kayaks high up on the beach South of San Francisco, in the shadow of the old World War II gun emplacements, the "Catcher of Words" appeared seeming to materialize from the very fire's driftwood smoke. To those of us seated around the fire's warmth this was to be a very special evening. This night would become a treasured memory. This would be a night to tell our children about when we were old. This was the night that the "Teller of Tales" would speak of the origins of the Children of The Sea. Of probable realities; of things that never were but might have been, and could still be.

He was tall and of indeterminate age. He was strong from paddling many miles over the sea. He was the Catcher of Words, the Shape Shifter. He was sometimes known as Orca Man. He was a legend. It was said that he was an Orca who could become a man or a man who could return to being an Orca. He slowly drew our attention around the fire's glow with the motion of an Eagle's feather and as he began to slowly speak his words, our mind's rose as one with the heat and the smoke of the idea…and now let me tell you, as it was told to me, about the origins of The Children of The Sea.

***

I am speaking here of the very original inhabitants of this particular zone of consciousness. You see, these are no earthbound sailors; no mere fishermen! Nor are these questors, like your own self, who have given up the past and earthly reference points like fame and gain-games in order to pursue a higher order. No, these, who I speak about were the original people of The Sea, these were the wind sailors who knew no land. These individuals spent their entire time amidst the ebb and flow of the tides. They rode the ridges and scouted the troughs of the sea as intently as any range rider from the old Western days. Like electronic impulses they skimmed the ridges and ripples of current found within the human brain. These were the very eyes and ears of The Dreamer of All That Is. Their function was to see what there was to see and to hear what there was to be heard, moving eternally over the pond of time--Floaters, Darters and Skaters upon the surface, the retina, the pupil, if you will, of God!

The largest of these were the Floaters. Their ships were white, bleached from the salt and sun, originally cast from the bones of the large ones, the leviathans of the deep. These vessels were so large and moved with such rapidity over the sea that they appeared not to move at all. Even the smallest of the Floaters covered many acres and appeared not unlike large farm houses firmly moored within the earth of a well plowed field.

The smallest were the Darters which served as the individual form of transportation for The Children of The Sea. These Darters were very small and extremely fast. They, often as not, linked up in centipede-like sections, forming flexible multi-jointed string-like roadways between the large Floaters. Over these ribbons flowed the endless procession of supplies which were necessary to maintain one of the large floating cities. But though the Floaters were the largest and the Darters the smallest, the Skaters were the ones that truly captured the imagination, for they were the pirates of space and time skimming over the surface of the sea on an invisible layer of what might be referred to as--intent. Though these vessels looked not unlike sailing ships of old, through some secret process, these swift surface sailors were able to skim at will over the largeness of the sea on an invisible layer. But first I must comment on this word, "intent".

"Intent" is a form of anti-gravity, if you will, certainly more focused than mere desire and more potent than hope. Intent is a force to be reckoned with! And when coupled with the sun sails of the imagination, well, theirs were only the fastest, most maneuverable, most fantastic vehicles ever to operate within this time/space frame. Although there is always the prospect that, at any instant, another, possibly superior vehicle might just sort of "POP" through! But so far this has just never, ever happened.

You might be curious what these creatures looked like. Well their sails were not of cotton, my friend. Nor of nylon, nor of any acrylic fabric woven or created upon the surface of this globe. Their sails were spun from the seeds of realization, and, as a result, they had no edges, as neither did their gloriously colorful caftans. Though they occupied relative space and moved at a specific velocity, they could not be contained nor isolated within any specific frame. It seemed that they moved across a greater floor in time, to the beat of a drummer only rumored to exist within our rather limited hall of reference. They were each and every one, very dramatic in appearance. They were the freest of the free. They were personal emissaries of The Dreamer and if not full blown dreamers themselves, they were certainly fully credentialed dream-reps. These were cosmic pirates who choose to gather not beneath the blackness of skull and cross-bones, but before an image of the rising Sun!

The uniforms of those who crewed these water Skaters were described as being diaphanous caftans of brilliant rainbow hues, sparkling beneath the sun and giving off streamers of flash and color as they turned here and there upon the high sea. They often formed a moving picture--literally, skimming over the surface at terrific rates of speed, with their bleached white skeletal hulls and their misty blue sails of imagination, deriving their sustenance directly from The Dreamer. All the while, the smooth yellow hum of intent, looking for all the world like a yellow light, seemed to perfectly fill the gap between the hulls of their ships and the surface of the universal pond.

The crews themselves often gave the initial impression of flowers, for with their brilliant robes and exquisite headdresses they looked not unlike the individual petals of an elaborate tropical plant or feathers constituting the plumage of a very rare and exotic bird.

Now where do they come from you might ask? Well, according to The Teller of Tales, the elder Water Skaters, the original ones, entered the sea from the most northern points: from out of the very center of the earth. These were often seen by beings of lesser order as a spray of Northern light referred to historically as the Aurora Borealis. The other, younger ones, were apparently produced in the usual manner.

What makes them most intriguing perhaps is that they seemed able to bridge the gap, between imagination and matter. The essential difference, you see, between a Skater and you or I is that they aren't, while we still think that we are. Sometimes they were like soap bubbles in a sea of foam winking on and off, out and in. And yet at other times they had the consistency of purest glass, clear and dense. And though they operated within this gravitational field, they were free to create their own self-organizing rings of singularity; their own little spheres of influence. They were the Lords and Ladies of change, separated from us by only the thinnest wall of Light. And yet they were completely aware of our presence. When a Skater casually tossed his cape over his shoulders, he was not unaware that universes were conceived, matured and died...all in a twinkling! They constantly reached up and out in an intuitive understanding that at the same instant, The Dreamer was reaching down and within and in that realization there was a profound touching. Seemingly it made all the difference, to them as well as to us, the last phantom bodies still bubbling in the stream. You see, we are not the first, nor the most advanced. We are the last and the rest of the universe is urging us on.

Now you may wonder what happened to these magical creatures, these forces of change? Well, nothing. They are still around and we have all made contact at one time or another. Surely you have felt the pressure from the presence of a nearby Floater or seen the flash at the corner of your eye from a Skater or Darter whizzing by. We have all made contact many, many times, but we all, as if by prior agreement, refuse to see what there is to see or to hear what there is to be heard. Often, upon feeling the rush of a nearby Skater, one is suddenly seized by what is commonly called creative inspiration. Many a person has been driven to press pen to paper or paint to canvas under the guise of artistic inspiration, when in reality it is merely the passing of a couple of Skaters engaged in supraverbal banter reverberating down through the lesser frequencies. These illumines are much sought after in certain esoteric circles.

And what is it that they do, you may ask. They do as they please, of course. They play. They simply have fun. Skaters are, at one and the same time, Angels and celestial vampires. Their only purpose, if purpose is truly the term desired, is to play! They were created by The Dreamer from ecstasy and then immediately set free. They are the butterflies of consciousness, the otters of the universe. They are the first residents of The Great Surround. They fan the flame and soak up the sun. They are the fingers that center the clay upon the universal wheel...these are the original Children of The Sea!