(music) Welcome to the stock pavilion here at the University of Illinois.

I'm Sarah Edwards.

Now, we're going to do things a little differently on this edition of Prairie Fire.

For the next hour, we're going to introduce you to the art of Deke Weaver and his partner, Jennifer Allen.

Now they're from here in Champaign Urbana, and for the past 10 years, they've been creating stage shows that illustrate the plight of endangered animals and species that face extinction as the planet warms.

Their last show, which is called Cetacean, which means the whale, happened right here at the stock pavilion in September of 2023.

And for the next hour, we're going to show you a shortened version of it.

So why spend an hour showing you Cetacean?

Well, if you've ever seen a whale breach on the surface of the ocean, or a skeleton of a whale in a museum, you know how much all whales can inspire.

And whether or not you kind of "get" the art you're about to see, we hope that Cetacean will help you pause and consider your relationship with not only whales, but with every species on the planet.

As the author Rebecca Giggs says in this book, Fathoms, which is so beautifully written, she says whales can magnify the better urgings of our nature, and renew those parts of us that are drawn by Wonder to revise our place and our power in the natural world.

Hi, I'm Deke Weaver.

And I'm Jennifer Allen.

We're artists that do a lot of things.

I write and perform what I write, I make videos.

I'm also a professor at the School of Art and Design at the University of Illinois in Urbana Champaign.

And I'm a director, choreographer, dancer, and an acupuncturist.

We are partners onstage and off.

Yes, we are.

We want to introduce you to the show you're about to see.

It's called "Cetacean: The Whale."

Cetacea is an ancient Greek word for sea monster.

But for us 21st century people, the word is part of taxonomy, the science of naming and classifying all the organisms on Earth.

Like this.

For human beings, we're in Animalia for Kingdom, mammalea for class, and primates for order.

For all the whales and dolphins, they're also an animalia and Mammalia for kingdom and class, but their order is cetacea.

So why use a different word when we could just call the show whale?

Hang on, we'll get to it.

But first, a little history.

Almost 20 years ago, I was a new professor at the U of I, Jennifer and I moved here from New York City, I was realizing that most of my work had animals in it.

One show of mine had a talking pheasant and a hockey coach who got drunk and back to truck over his puppy by accident.

Funny, sad, emotional stuff.

But I was also haunted by a lot of what I was reading, like the idea that half the species on the planet would be extinct by the year 2050.

It's horrible.

You know, how does anyone sit with that idea?

So I started thinking about a long project, "The Unreliable Bestiary."

I'd make a performance for every letter of the alphabet, each letter represented by an endangered animal or habitat.

At that point, I'd been making solo performances, but with the first bestiary, Jen and I started collaborating, now just like in a movie where a lot can be conveyed in silence.

The dance moments allow a space for the audience to have a different kind of experience inside what's happening in the stories.

The shows wouldn't be about the animals, but mostly, they'd be about us, humans, and the animals, how everything's connected.

So the animals in these shows almost become canaries in the coal mine.

That sounds so heavy, and it is part of what we do.

But we also like to balance that with a sense of humor.

The shows are about the animals but more and more they're becoming about how hard the natural systems of our planet are struggling, a lot of problems.

Climate change, of course, but now you're starting to see the term poli crisis, global warming, deforestation, ocean acidification, massive freshwater pollution and mass extinction.

And they're all interconnected.

And those are just the natural systems.

Yeah.

If you start stirring in the results of these failing systems, you know, like economics, population politics, migration, food security, it starts nasty multipronged trickle down situations that get personal and you can feel overwhelming.

So what do you do?

We make a bunch of funny, sad, absurd performances, events that gather people together in person, you bring your friends and maybe you make some new ones, maybe put people a tiny bit off balance and let them see things a little differently.

It doesn't always happen, but that's what you hope for.

Monkey was our first show.

We performed it in 2009.

Now taken over the main performers, we made it for the Station Theater in Urbana, Illinois, a 75 seat black box theater.

The next show was elephant in 2010.

A much bigger show much bigger.

We made it for the huge stock pavilion at the U of I.

We projected video onto 90 foot long screens.

Our production designer made a life size walking elephant puppet that took five people to animate.

And dancers filled the space is baby elephants, circus roundabouts, the TV crew, it was big since monkey and elephant.

We've made wolf bear, Tiger.

And now cetacean we already made W with Wolf, so we couldn't do whale.

So we called it cetacean.

Instead, we make these shows with talented people that we know and trust.

As the shows get closer, more people come in students, former students, community members, teachers and professors, building sets, props, costumes, puppets, and sometimes performing now as the scale changes, so what is the size of the audience?

Some have been really big for hundreds of people, but some are more intimate, like just 12.

For Wolf.

We loaded folks onto a couple of buses and took them out to Allerton Park, this tiny patchable growth forest, each bus had rangers who told folks about wolves taught them how to how sang some songs we got there just as the sun went down.

We told people that we had released a pack of wolves into the park.

As we walk them through the trees as the woods got dark dancers dressed as wolves brought the story to life.

A little spooky, but funny.

It all ended up in a beautiful old barn with lots of dance, music and stories.

So let's talk about "Cetacean."

I started reading about whales just as Tiger was finishing.

And just as the pandemic was beginning, this was three and a half years before we did the show.

During that time, I worked with professors and high school teachers to develop a whale workshop for high school and college students.

I went to 45 classes and talked with more than 800 kids about oceans, whales, plastics and how, even though we're sitting here in the middle of the country, we're connected to the oceans.

Meanwhile, two years before the show, I started working with dancers imagining the world of the show in the stock of seeing the space serve as both a ship and also the bottom of the sea.

We transformed from sailors to fish sharks to narwhals and even kelp.

We performed cetacean in September of 2023.

But the thing about live performances when the show is over, it's over.

But we always document it.

And this time, we collaborated with a cinematography class at the U of I.

They shot the show over four nights with a bunch of cameras, then they edited it together.

The full show is two and a half hours long, but what you're about to see is edited excerpts, patches that made up the quilt of the whole show.

It won't be the same as seeing it in person, of course, but we hope it'll give you a taste of the experience.

This is "Cetacean."

Good afternoon.

humpbacks are famous for their singing.

When you hear a whale in a movie or on TV, it's going to sound like this.

There aren't any other animals in the world that make this kind of sound.

This is the song of the male humpback whale.

They're one of the big baleen whales, the MR seats, not too many of these.

Right whales, bowhead whales, blue whales, fin whales, humpbacks, gray whales, a few others, and they're all quite big sea they find huge schools of fish or krill, scoop them up in their enormous mouths and squeeze the seawater out through the baleen that acts like a strainer, leaving the whale with a mouthful of protein.

Now, some humpbacks hunt like this 234 of them swim down below a school of fish way deep down, and they swim in a circle in a spiral blowing bubbles, and the bubbles rise the cylindrical bubble curtain rising to the surface and the bubbles freak out the fish.

The fish will not swim through the bubbles.

So this this this spiraling bubble curtain concentrates the fish driving them in and up towards the surface.

And the whale swim up from below all together, slamming their huge garage door sized drawers around the school of fish.

And sometimes with this bubble net business, one or two of those wells will slap their flippers on the surface, like a gunshot just above the ball of fish, and the intensity of the sound seems to stun the fish making the feeding even easier for the whales.

Let's see the whale slept their flippers at other times to moments that don't seem to have anything to do with eating fish.

Why are they doing this?

Or when they breach when a whale jumps out of the water like the insurance company?

Why do they do that?

One theory for why whales breach is that they're trying to scrape the barnacles off of their huge wet bodies.

Okay, sure, fine, maybe sounds possible.

But maybe a whale leaping out of the water doesn't have anything to do with barnacles.

And maybe it doesn't have anything to do with impressing other whales, or rage or doing it because other whales are doing it.

And maybe it's something we humans have absolutely no ability to understand.

You know, like the way we see the world will not allow us to understand why a whale jumps out of the water.

Or maybe it doesn't mean anything at all.

The sea is full of all kinds of mysteries.

Let us go down into the depths.

One of the names for the top 200 vertical meters of ocean is the sunlight.

So let's go down further.

From 200 to 1000 meters.

It's getting darker as we go deeper, there's still some light, but it's getting darker and darker all the time.

This layer is called haha, the Twilight Zone.

Now that 656 to 3280 feet, everything below the Twilight Zone lies in perpetual darkness.

And now we used to think that without light, there could be no life.

Of course now we know there's all sorts of life.

It's all very, very strange.

Well, you know, it's strange to us.

But the folks down there, you know, they just live there.

Now from 1000 meters to 3000 meters lies the midnight zone.

And from 3000 meters to 6000 meters lies the abyss, everything below 6000 meters, that's 19,385 feet.

Everything below that.

Therein lies the underworld, Hades, the hadal zone.

Now the deepest recorded dive of a human being unassisted by oxygen wearing fins, 129 meters or 423 feet still well within the sunlight zone.

The world record for a human being sitting still underwater holding their breath 24 minutes and 37 seconds.

I know it's amazing, right?

It's like even if you're just trying to hold your breath, you know, like you're seven years old, you're down at the pool or down by the lake or the beach, and you're timing yourself with your friends, maybe you'll get to 45 seconds, maybe a minute.

You can train yourself up.

You can teach yourself.

You can learn.

You can evolve to hold your breath for a full minute and a half, maybe two, maybe three.

Why don't we try it?

Yes.

All right, so I'm gonna count to three.

And when I get to three, we're all collectively going to take an a big, huge deep breath.

And we're going to start the clock so you can see how long you're holding your breath.

Okay, cool beans.

Yes.

All right.

123 Hold it.

Now while you hold your breath, I'll have you know that a swimming free diver held their breath for 11 minutes.

A sea otter can hold its breath in a die for over five minutes, and emperor penguin for 20 A walrus 30.

An elephant seal can hold its breath for two hours as it dives 6000 feet from the sunlight zone down past the twilight zone into the midnight zone.

Anyone still holding their breath?

Cuvier's beaked whale dove 9800 feet well into the midnight zone.

That's just eight meters above the abyss.

This whale was underwater on one breath for three hours and 42 minutes.

Here's what's killing whales today.

Plastic noise chemicals being struck by ships climate change, getting caught in abandoned fishing gear and rope.

Course watching sperm whales hunts not really a thing because that home takes place in the midnight zone, a mile and a half below the surface and they will eat all kinds of animals crab, krill, lobster, jellyfish, sea sponges, starfish, sea cucumbers, seabirds and seals.

Ah come on folks they gotta eat they will also eat wood 10 plates coconuts, sand, plastic stones and fishing gear?

Right Thank you Thank you for having me.

Thank you.

You may have heard of my earlier work with NASA, CIA, Greenpeace, and our attempts to communicate with whales and dolphins.

Our unconventional work with cetaceans will serve as a foundation for communicating with extra terrestrial life should we need to interplanetary travel could be part of our future.

So let's think about this.

If the galaxy is the sea, then planets are islands.

You can even think of a lifeboat as a very small island or the earth as a lifeboat.

Survival on a lifeboat is often determined by your ability to conserve your limited resources and adapt to change conditions are what some folks might call the unknown.

You see, the purpose of our method is not to dispel the veils of mystery.

Know, our work seeks to embrace the unknown, and difference to be comfortable with the uncomfortable.

Let's start with Moby Dick.

Now those great white whale was a fictional sperm whale.

But the story is based on actual events, which took place on the WhaleShip Essex, the Great Whale 85 feet long 80 tons charged straight into the Essex.

the 238 ton ship shook like it had run into a cliff.

And then the whale turned around and did it again.

The Essex did not survive the punishment.

The ship went down.

Let's meditate on this moment with Ahab, the tormented one legged captain of Melville's novel (music) And you Seabreeze gonna change it up.

Give me a salty dog.

Couple of narwhal swim into a bar is their day off.

What else are they gonna do?

One says to the other.

Hey, what's a pirate's favorite letter?

I don't know.

Why don't you tell me?

Well, you would think that it would be R. But actually it is p and why would that be?

Because a P is an R that is missing a leg?

I see pirate walks into a bar.

It's got a big ship steering wheels sticking out of his pants.

The bartender says my friend you got a steering wheel sticking out of your pants.

The pirate says a vast this wheel is driving me nuts now you can't say that they sprang into action they didn't have enough energy to spring young man remember to crouching to pick up his end of the kayak fighting this Dizzy blackout head rush from not eating in three days not standing in just as many usually took them 30 minutes to pack the boat that day.

It took him an hour and a half and during that time the sky had got very very dark but the wind wasn't so bad and there wasn't there wasn't too much lightning.

Yes, yes.

They were going so they got in the boats they come across out of the cove they come around the point and and bad idea.

Jesus he remembered he remembered trying to keep the bow headed into the waves don't roll don't get broadsided he remembered Whitewater.

cresting waves 34567 feet high.

He remembered dark sky thunder everybody's shouting lightning.

Someone's paddle snapped in half.

Don't panic.

White Water, green water.

Black Water.

Don't panic.

How When dark sky everyone's shouting lightning does not go back.

In fact, they made it to a strip of speech only approved for one small tip in a massive pile of tangled washed up trees.

The six kayakers huddled together in the small tip 36 hours listening to the storm.

They had adapted to changing conditions, but conditions could have been much worse.

Pick them up and set them hot tea and soggy sandwiches.

This Prince William Sound storm was in 1980 in 1989, supertanker Exxon Valdez spilled 11 million gallons of oil into principle them sound after running aground.

Today, 34 years later, you can still stick a shovel in the beach and find a layer of black oil.

This oil spill killed millions of salmon eggs, hundreds and 1000s of seabirds.

1000s of otters and seals and nine killer whales.

In the summer of 2019.

There was a huge crash of the salmon population.

There were empty streets.

Bears were starving.

Whales, bears, fish birds, even wolves they all eat salmon.

Without salmon.

The Pacific Northwest oceanic rainforests system stops, the engine stops.

A wild scientists wrote killer whales are culturally conservative, meaning they are not flexible.

Orcas teach each other what's good to eat, and how to catch it.

They share food with each other.

If it's not shared, they won't touch it.

Some orca families will only eat other sea mammals like seal and otter.

Some will only eat other whales.

Some orca families only eat salmon.

They're very different strategies for hunting seal and hunting fish.

And if you have an endless supply of salmon, like centuries and centuries of endless salmon, why would you eat anything else?

So if the world is changing, and you can't evolve, if you can't change your behavior because you're culturally conservative, you might not live for very long.

The girl was born as the mother died, so it was just father and daughter.

Girl was a bit of a tomboy.

She was beautiful.

She was proud.

Fellows started coming around.

She wasn't interested at all.

Good looking charming, earnest, hardworking boys from good families.

She could care less.

She sat on the beach making elaborate braids of kelp to wrap the kelp around bits of bone and bring these treasures to her father.

She was getting older.

Her dad was getting nervous.

He said daughter seems your life will be lonely.

She said pop.

I don't care.

You know how strong I am.

He said yes I do.

But even so one day you might need this.

And he handed her a key made of stone.

He said this is the key to the floor of the world.

She put the key in her pocket.

She kissed him on the cheek.

She said don't worry, Papa.

I'm strong.

I'm life.

So they lived out their days.

But of course, things change.

So one day a young man came to talk with a girl.

He had a nice smile.

She liked to watch his hands.

told her about where he came from.

The pillows and couches were covered with reindeer and polar bear for a very soft, comfortable, warm.

He told her about how the lamps were always filled with oil and the pots with meat.

He said maybe I could show you some time.

She didn't say anything but she thought to herself.

Yeah, I'd like that.

Well, that young man showed up On the beach every day for a month.

Every morning there he was standing on the beach with two mugs of hot chowder one for him one for her.

They'd walk and sip their soup.

He talked, she'd listen.

And then one day, he started to listen.

And she started to talk.

Well, she told him everything.

Everything she wanted to do everything she'd ever hoped for everything she'd ever dreamed of.

She thought about these things all the time.

She's never told anybody.

Her dad was too busy.

The other girls in the village were mean or stupid or both.

And of course, the boys were hopeless.

She'd say, sometimes she'd say, oh, my gosh, I've been talking.

You sure you want to hear all this?

And the charming young man would say, of course, it's fascinating.

Don't stop and her face would explode into a huge smile.

She wanted him to know everything.

So one day she hugged him.

And then one day well, she kissed him.

Well, the very next day, the handsome young man showed up in the beach with three mugs of soup.

He said, Could I speak with your father?

girl said Of course.

She ran up the bluff to her father who sat looking out to see.

She said Please, Father Come with me.

My young man would like to have a word.

The father kept a straight face.

But inside he was bursting with excitement.

Could this be the day?

Well, it turned out that it was the young man gave a mug of chowder to the daughter, one to the Father.

And He suddenly became quite formal.

He bowed and swept his hand over the beach.

He said, gracious Father, I humbly ask for your daughter's hand in marriage.

I will be good to her.

I will be true.

I'm certain we are meant to be together.

But if I do not have your consent, I will leave you in peace and never darken your door again.

While the father smiled to himself.

Come on.

I mean, his daughter had said no to every single boy who had ever quartered her.

He looked at her out of the corner of his eye and found her staring right back at him with a huge smile.

He said, daughter do you do you like this idea?

And she hugged him whispering?

Yes, Papa.

Yes.

With tears in their eyes, father and daughter nodded their consent.

Excellent, said the young man.

But before we go any further I should let you know what you're getting into full disclosure sort of thing.

So he turned his back to the daughter and her grateful father.

He took off his jacket.

He stepped out of his boots.

And when he turned back around, he had become a huge sea bird.

his beak was sharp.

His eyes were bright.

His magnificent feathers sparkled in the sun.

He said, I didn't want to frighten you.

But now you should know.

I am the prince of the seabirds.

I offer you my world, my heart and my life.

Come be by my side.

Well, the young woman didn't hesitate.

Yes, she thought to herself 1000 times.

Yes.

She climbed on the back of her husband and the seabird Prince launched into the sky.

The father crouched, shielding his eyes from the sun as the huge bird carried his daughter off the beach out across the sea to her new Home.

Right A year went by.

Turns out things weren't exactly as the seabird Prince had promised.

There was not a single for line pillow, not a single cozy couch.

They never had oil in their lamps.

They never had meat in their pots.

The young woman's bed was rough walrus hide, she covered herself with nasty old fish skins and long gnarled ropes of kelp.

The comfortable Palace, the seabird Prince had promised turned out to be a ragged nest of bones perched on the edge of a cliff in the middle of the ocean, the island kingdom of seabirds.

When the wind wasn't howling, all she could hear was millions of birds incessantly arguing, gossiping and complaining to each other.

I mean, she couldn't believe it.

The guy seemed so nice he brought her soup you sweet where daddy listened to her.

And he was a prince God.

She was pierced.

she thought to herself when I get off the silent I will never trust a man never again.

And so she made a plan.

Whenever the prince was gone, let's be honest, he was always gone off to parties, the Royal Court drinking, making his big bird decisions.

Whenever the prince was gone, she would make a braid of kelp wrap it around a bit of bone from her horrible nest and throw it into the sea.

She did this every day.

And if a butterfly came by, or a tiny little bird, she'd whisper to them.

Find my father.

Tell him to come.

Thank you little one.

Go.

And so one day on a beach bar from the island of seabirds.

The young woman's father found a beautiful breed of cow.

And what do you know, just as He bent down to pick up that kelp?

A butterfly landed on his left shoulder.

Tiny little bird on his right.

Both of them whispering to him.

Our daughter is in danger.

So he did, he got in his boat.

He paddled for days.

And finally he came to the island of seabirds.

He looked high on the cliff and there she was.

He called sweetie.

I'm here.

She looked out over the edge of her nest down below at her papa bobbing at sea in his tiny boat.

He climbed up the cliff hauled himself into his nest.

His daughter was pale, emaciated.

Her beautiful hair was filthy, matted, tangled in knots.

But her eyes were furious.

She hissed to her father take me away from here.

Suddenly, the seabird Prince came home surprised to find a man in his nest.

The huge bird tried to charm his way out of it.

Oh, what a wonderful surprise.

Welcome to our home.

It's too much for the woman.

Liar.

You are a horrible liar.

She loves you the bird the bird Prince dodge slapped her to the ground with a huge wing stood on her head, pressing her face into the stony cliff with his big webbed foot.

The seabird prince looked down on his human wife writhing under his weight.

And in that moment, the young woman's father could see contempt and disgust in the eyes of the prince, even the kind of grim pleasure.

Now, truth be told, when the father found that beautiful braid of kelp, you know, when the butterfly was whispering, tiny little bird was cheeping.

He had a moment of doubt.

His daughter had always been a pain in the I mean, sure, she was brilliant and beautiful, but so proud.

Like she was better than everyone else.

He had a moment of thinking of, you know what my hottie daughter, not my problem.

You ignored all the boys for years.

This is the nasty a built now you gotta sleep in it.

But the butterfly kept whispering.

Tiny little bird kept cheeping so he got on that boat.

He paddled for days, and now he could see the truth for himself.

The seabird Prince was arrogant and terrible.

He could see it in a moment.

Seeing his daughter's face pressed down into a filthy nest of bones by the smirking, arrogant seabird Prince.

That was all the father needed.

With one motion, he scooped up a rock and smashed the head of the prince.

He hammered the birds head once twice, and the prince was dead.

Father and daughter climbed down the face of the cliff.

They got in their boat, and they sit off to sea back home.

Now you would hope that they would live happily ever after.

But this isn't that kind of story.

When all the birds on the island realize their prince had been killed, they cried like seabirds still cry today.

filled with grief the millions of birds kettled into the air.

Desperate for revenge, they black in the sky, churning the sea with their anger grinding the ocean into the darkest of storms.

Father and daughter climbed the mountain is black and green waves in their tiny boat.

They've never seen such fury, the seabirds found the boat diving and father and daughter crying betrayal to the human Princess, given to us old man.

The father protected his face from the birds that they attacked him, their beaks ripping his bald head into a massive bloody meat.

The young woman stood up in the boat swinging her paddle at the birds, knocking them out of the sky.

The father thought to himself she'll swamp the boat ship kill us both.

Give her to us.

Give her to us scream the birds.

So he did.

He shoved his daughter overboard.

The birds cried.

Yes, she grabbed the gun.

I love the boat screaming father helped me she tried to pull herself back in, but he wouldn't have it.

With his sharpest knife.

He cut off the tips of her fingers.

The birds, the eyes of father and daughter locked as she slipped up the hall.

She launched once again grabbing the edge of the boat with bloody hands.

But there he was cutting off her fingers at the knuckles and she slipped below the surface.

she thought to herself oh you full he's just like all the rest.

She loved one last frantic time and there he was slicing up her hands at the wrists as this see took her the seabirds screamed Down she goes to her.

When the woman didn't come back to the surface.

The storm clear the sea satisfy satisfied.

Seabirds move back to their island Kingdom where the wind is back.

The sun shining on his bloody head.

The father pedal down he thought to himself I should have done that years ago.

Meanwhile, down below the surface of the slowly settling waves.

The woman sank to the bottom of the sea As she sank, she made a vow I will not be I will not be broken.

I am life.

As she made her bow the tips of her fingers swam away and became all the whales of the ocean.

And as she swore her bitter revenge, a knuckle stove deep and became all the seals of the sea.

And as she caressed her deadly hatred her stumpy hands became the walruses and sea lion and as she nursed her rage pacing back and forth on the bottom of the deep dark ocean she made the world a very different place anybody home it's one of your dolphins mom quick visit brought you something now it's pitch black.

But you know I got that echolocation sound thing right so I could couldn't see anything but it could hear everything crystal clear.

And covering every inch every three 440 foot deep over the mother's living room over the bottom and the entire bottom of the of the sea was oh, oh great.

A list covering the bottom of the sea.

Ready?

Here we go.

Ice Cream tubs, Solo cups, water bottles, packing tape, bubble wrap, garbage bags, life sized plastic crucifixes, PCBs, Styrofoam coolers, milk jugs, drift nets, flip flops, fish traps, cell phones, laptops, blenders grocery bags, endocrine disruptors, synthetic burlap forever chemicals Yes, pee fast.

Synthetic microplastics Barbie dolls, toothbrushes, insulation, floss picks flotation devices flame retardant persistent organic pollutants.

Yes, that's right.

Pop's abandoned 28 mile long lines industrial sludge Mickey Donald, Goofy to just goes on.

It goes on for a long time.

Thanks the mystery that lies at the bottom of the sea.

Is all your human garbage.

You human fear.

Your hope?

Your dreams.

Your shadow.

In there she was the mother of the sea.

All sprawled out on a lazy boy.

Was she asleep?

No.

Was she awake?

Sure.

I said "Most noble mother, I bring mitten."

Shut up.

It's my program.

So I I shut up.

The mother once beautiful and proud had let herself go.

And as she'd been known to say on other less peaceful days, You ever tried to do your hair with no hands?

You ever try that?

No.

No.

No.

Didn't think so.

What about makeup?

You ever tried to clean up nice with all those empty baby brushes and pads and tubes and little tiny dishes of ointment with no hands?

No, no.

And what about earrings?

You want to talk about earrings?

Oh sure.

Learn to do it with your feet?

Sure why not?

My back went out 1000 years ago.

Let me see you put on some earrings with your feet in a bad back.

Go ahead.

Let me see it.

Do it Don't call me that.

Look, you are catching me on a good day.

I might even like you and believe me, I don't like folks.

So, what what would you like me to call you?

I don't want you to call me anything.

I don't want to talk to you.

I don't want to talk to anyone.

Okay, well, I I'll just leave these mittens here and I'm gonna go.

What is with the mittens?

Well, I think they'd fit.

They're your color and well I think they're all yours.

my color?

How do you know?

w--well I, my mom does people's seasons--color analysis, you know?

Well, you are right, that red is my kinda mitten.

Oh well let's try 'em on.

uhh, you know just for fun just Oh, yeah Ah yeah Mmmh.

They look good.

Yeah.

Oh, there you go.

What do you-- Stop!

Are you-- Ah, please, stop.

they used to think I was bottomless, mysterious.

Violent, beautiful, endless whatever.

And now, they fly across me in a couple of hours.

They measure me.

They predict me like I'm getting smaller and smaller and I'll be (----) if they don't keep pissing me off.

And so I'd give it to 'em.

Hurricane, tsunami, rogue waves, atmospheric river, a decade of drought, and do they pay any attention?

No, no, they've got no vision, no patience.

No goddamn sense of memory and empathy?

Empathy, oh, you think you understand me?

No, you don't.

You think you've got it all figured out?

Clearly you don't.

You think you've got me all sorted all worked out?

Ha!

Absolutely not.

I am ocean.

Earth's sky stars, the future, and the past, now, never, always.

That's me.

And I--it is just so obvious.

Wake up!

I am life!

I will not be tamed, I will not be broken.

You choke me, and I will bury you.

You leave filth: colossal endless waves of filth will be yours.

Your old ones thought about seven generations, and you fools can't think about seven days.

You think the world was born in seven days?

Then surely , it can die and just as many You have everything you need.

And yet you poison the well, you salt the field, you burn the forests.

Please, my children, listen.

Most vessels are equipped with everything you need.

A little common sense...you take care of her, she takes care of you.

Ships are built for buoyancy.

The most compromised vessels can be, can be salvaged.

Your ability to conserve resources and adapt to changing conditions-- That's the measure of your success.

Ah, Mittens.

Yes.

I haven't thought about this.

Yes, yes, yes, I haven't thought about this for a very long time.

The key to the floor of the world.

I can hold it now.

And to get your attention, I'm going to use this key.

It's going to prove to be quite painful for you stupid little (-----).

I'm going to use this key to open the door, the floor of the world the door to the stars.

I'm going to use this key and Release the Kraken the via fin of Kufa galactic whale, all of them and I'm going to let them remind you of what you've got.

Hope, fear, patience, endurance, strength.

Shadow.

light the sky, the sun, the moon, the stars, the clouds, the storm.

The wind, the rain, the snow, the ice, the whales, the animals, the fish, the birds, the frogs, the bugs the humans the mountains the valleys the earth the sand, the desert, the hills, the islands, the forests the trees that grasses the prairie the swamps, the lakes, the rivers, the beaches the tides the ocean the sea (music)