A family photo from 1975 shows my son, then four years old, wading at Griffin Bay and leaning down to kiss a jellyfish he had lifted gently from the water.

Only a moment before, his mother — seeing him lifting and dashing them on the sand — talked quietly with him about the sacredness of all living things.

The upwelling of that memory haunts me today after reading the Oct. 15 Journal: “Lost orcas mourned” by Richard Walker, Ken Balcomb’s reports of fishing declines and threats to bio-diversity, disappearance of jellyfish populations in the article about Dr. Osamu Shimomura by Claudia Mills, opposition to stormwater remediation in another mention in your paper, to name but a few “canary in the mine” issues.

Ray Hillare of the Lummi Indian Nation surely makes a statement worthy of repeating: When it comes to the environment, we are motivated by the ambitions in our minds rather than the sensitivity in our hearts.

This beautiful afternoon, I’ll drop this “thank you” note at your office with special thanks to Richard Walker, Ken Balcomb, Ray Hillare and Claudia Mills. Then I’m off to Griffin Bay at high tide where I hope to kiss a jellyfish.

Gene Patterson
San Juan Island