Author Archives: Carina Virto

Final Essay

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Carina Virto 

ECL 305 

Professor Pressman 

09, May 2024 

Finding Your Balance: History and Self Identity Combined 

History is a collection of events that have already occurred, the present is the known, and the future is unknown; each of these ideologies rely on one another, without one there is not the other. The book The Deep, by River Soloman, presents a character named Yetu who is appointed the grand responsibility of maintaining and holding the entire history of her people. This responsibility poses a great threat to her own wellbeing; as it overcomes her, it becomes her losing her own sense of identity. In an attempt for self preservation, Yetu flees this responsibility and meets a two leg, meaning human, named Oori who contrasts Yetu in the way that Oori’s people are gone and with them her own sense of identity and feeling of belonging in the world. The novel The Deep presents the character contrast between Yetu and Oori to serve as a representation of the importance of balancing one’s’ history and ones’ present circumstances, emphasizing the preservation of self identity and safeguarding the continuation of ones’ culture for future generations. 

When the novel opens, the reader meets Yetu moments after her attempted suicide, one of the first of many negative occurrences caused by all of the pain and suffering she had endured as the Historian. A Historian is a single, carefully selected, Wajinru whose sole purpose is to remember the entire history of their people. Wajinru are mermaid-like creatures who communicate with each other through sensory measures. This fact creates the idea that Wajinru are interconnected with their emotions on a physical level making the role of a Historian to be a physically and emotionally demanding role. This responsibility overcame Yetu on many levels, especially attacking her own wellbeing as the “rememberings were always drawing her backward into the ancestors’ memories—that was what they were supposed to do—but not at the expense of her life” (Soloman, 2). When a responsibility becomes so taxing on one’s mind and body, regardless of its original purpose, the person will naturally begin to repel whatever is causing them harm as an instinctual response. Too much of one thing, in this case historical grievances placed upon a highly sensitive individual, will fail to prolong, and even more so if this thing negatively affects an individual. The purpose of history is to teach the present past mistakes, enrich the minds of future generations, and to maintain culture but none of that can be acknowledged by Yetu if her history becomes a mental and physical burden. Yetu is her own person and the history of her people is consuming her, so much so, that the preservation of the rememberings is placed above her own as it “had been plain to all for many years that Yetu was a creature on the precipice, and without a successor in place, [the history of the Wajinru would] be lost” (Soloman, 4). Her community was more concerned about the memories she held than who Yetu was or how she felt. At the end of the day all mammals are ruled by their instinctual need for survival and though Yetu’s life was not always in physical danger her role as a Historian became more regarded than herself as a living being. This dynamic between Yetu, her people, and history created a disconnect between each of these facets; causing Yetu to flee her responsibility, people, and culture. Too much history, living in the past and becoming absent in the present, began to threaten Yetu’s sense of identity when her history was supposed to help shape it, therefore evoking the outcome of her completely abandoning it; leaving the history of her people to be lost as she found herself.  

Contrastingly, the lack of connection Oori had with her own history and people created a profound absence of self identity and a pervasive sense of displacement within the world and her place within it.​​ The readers are introduced to Oori when one of the two legs, Suka, told Yetu it was Oori that had been supplying her the fish that were keeping her alive. When Yetu asked if Oori was one of Suka’s family members she had replied that she wasnt and that “[Oori’s] from an island off the northwestern coast. [Suka’s family were] inland mainland folk, and much farther south.” Although Oori had traded, usually giving more than taking, to Suka’s family for a while she was still not considered one of them; she was still an outsider from another land, one that was nearly nonexistent. In that same manner, Oori did her own thing and lived in her own way as Suka remarked that Oori did things as she wanted to. This way of life that seemed “other” to Suka could very well be the culture of her people which creates this disconnect between Oori and people like Suka. Oori fails to fit into a mold she was not cultivated for, therefore isolating herself from the people who inhabit the land she has found a home in. This sort of disconnect is poised to attack Oori’s understanding of her place in this society and may even push her to disregard her culture and history to assimilate to her new environment, further perpetuating the idea that a common history and way of life people share ground them. Oori was a part of a people called Oshuben and they had all died. With the passing of her people were also the loss of their stories, culture, and history. Due to these circumstances, as much as Suka’s people rejected her, she rejected them. Suka explained to Yetu that Oori did not like being thanked as it was “too close to kinship for her, which she doesn’t do” (Soloman, 82). Kinship to Oori was something she believed she did not have, and could not have, due to her people being deceased; she clung onto the few memories and traditions she still shared with her lost people. If Oori were to connect with a new people, she would feel as if she is further losing sight of her identity. Oori is the last of her people and without her constant mindfulness to keep her culture in mind when interacting with new people, traditions, and culture then the Oshuben will officially be lost. Her peoples’ history survives through her, presenting Oori as a historian for her own people; she will continue to reject all connection with other peoples as she feels she will have abandoned her people and be responsible for their loss. This will further isolate her and inadvertently attack her sense of belonging. 

Yetu and Oori pose as character foils and through this dynamic a balance of too much history and not enough can create just enough of each; a balance. When Oori first informs Yetu of the loss of her people, the two of them had varying perceptions of it being a positive or negative outcome within the grand scheme of things. Yetu felt it was not the worst thing to lose everything, that without a people to hold Oori to standards or expectations she “had room to think. To know what she wanted and believed”. Yetu felt that with her new found freedom she “[knew] who [she was]now” that she “-wasn’t Yetu. [She] was just a shell for their whims” (Soloman, 93). Yetu had too much pressure on her created by her ancestors and people that she had no room to be herself, to add her own mark on history, causing her to reject it. On the other hand, Oori responded to these ideologies saying she “would take any amount of pain in the world if it meant I could know all the memories of the Oshuben. [She] barely [knew] any stories from [her] parents’ generation,” (93). Oori is perplexed by the willingness of Yetu to leave her people asking, “How could [she] leave behind something like that? Doesn’t it hurt not to know who you are?”. Here the reader is presented with two opposite ends of a spectrum: Yetu with too much history where she cannot find a sense of self identity and importance, and Oori who has little to no history or connection with her people making it difficult for her to feel she has the permission to find herself. This is the reason that people must find a balance between their history and present. Though they posed as each other’s opposites, they craved each other. When Yetu found Oori sailing away from her lost home, she beckoned her to join her in the water saying, “Stay with me, and we will make a new thing. What’s behind us, it is done,” (Soloman, 153). The reader is seeing two worlds collide; the union of Oori and Yetu is a balance of too much history and not enough. They both will take what their past has taught them and implement it into their present lives, adding their own flair which further extends their peoples way of life that will too become history. Oori’s transformation into a “new thing” is the physical embodiment of history and the present creating a hybrid version of itself. The past offers lessons and answers of previous generations that may apply to the present generations; with this knowledge the current generation will feel free to take that knowledge and apply it to their current society, creating a “new thing”. 

Solomon was able to craft the idea that keeping ones’ history with them in the present while also adding their own ideals onto it, creating a future, is the way to preserve both culture and self identity. Yetu rejected her people and what they represented due to a sense of displacement within her own home; she had no room to be herself since she was living for everyone else in the past. Moreover, Oori had no people to rely on and when one has no real sense of belonging to something bigger than themselves, they tend to cling onto what little they do have, dissipating any room they had to belong anywhere else. The balance between these two dynamics is imperative and is what will ensure that people connect with their past, present and future. 

Works Cited 

Soloman, R. The Deep. Simon & Schuster, 2019      

Extra Credit Discovery Blog: Sirena

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The origin story if Sirena can serve as a lesson for the children it is read to listen to their parents. This story is set in Guam and is about a Chamorro girl named Sirena. She is infatuated with the water and swimming in it. One day, her mother is in need of some assistance in the kitchen when she asks her daughter, Sirena, to “-come, take this basket from your brother and fill it with breadfruit from auntie’s. Hurry, come directly back.” As she was on her way to her Aunts house, who so conveniently lives near a river bank, Sirena is convinced by the birds in the sky who begin diving in the water that she must join them in their play. It would seem that Sirena stayed in the water a lot longer than she had realized as the sun leaves the horizon and the realization that she has not fulfilled the errand her mother sent her on has not been fulfilled.

When she returns home, Sirena is scolded by her mother as she, figuratively and literally, curses her saying “Sirena, if you ever go in the water again, you will become an ugly, fat fish!”. Sirena then runs away from this scolding and flees to the river, and hops in. She chooses the water as she felt that her connection to it far outweighed the life she had on land. To her surprise, she did not turn into an ugly fish, but “-instead, [formed] an iridescent tail stretched down from her waist.” She whispered goodbye and that goodbye is to have said still echos across the land. Despite the fact that Sirena sort of got a happy ending, I feel it still gives a warning to the severity of not listening to your mother and failing to be well behaved as an outlined duty for children. I feel like the story argued that you either listen to your mom or you live an entirely different life; there is no in between.

Week 15: Conclusions/What I Learned

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The moment I saw a mermaid on the syllabus I just knew it would change and shift my perspectives. I have never in my academic career equated the environment with being anything more than a dormant and dead piece of matter that happens to give us structure to walk on and build on; nothing more. This preconceived notion was completely blown up by the literature we interacted with throughout the entire semester; and not only that but the texts made me question and identify how those conceptions were constructed in the first place. Why did I think all mermaids were white? Why was I so disconnected to the environment? Who convinced me that nature mattered less than me? Who taught me that I was apart from nature and not a part? All of these reevaluations entered my head throughout my time in each lecture.

Each text was very rich in culture and information but my favorite and most notable were the texts regarding the Blue Humanities. As an English major, I am often queried about what I want to do with an English degree; Do you want to be a teacher? What can you do with that? The Blue Humanities connects literature with the environment, evoking emotional connectivity, historically rich texts, and a projects an urge to reconnect with the environment. The genre of the Blue Humanities is able to understand that humans are very emotionally intelligent and when one connects these emotions to the environment, a “lifeless” mute piece of earth, one may cultivate care and respect towards our home. All of this action was inspired through various forms of literature, words, language, rhetoric; all encompassing traits that make up what an English major practices every day. This class made me feel like I chose a very important major that could give me the tools to change perceptions and maybe even the world. (That was corny, I know😭)

Final Essay Outline

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Hey guys,

Here is the outline of my final essay for this class; Let me know what you think or feel that I could add to my body paragraphs! 🙂 Thanks.

Title: “Straight to the Heart”

Thesis: In order to get humans to begin to reconnect with their forsaken connection to nature, the environment we live in and are inherently apart of, we must personify it through the use of literature and the understandings of the Blue Humanities; thus retying the knot between humans and the environment for the betterment of society and future generations.

Body 1: What is the environmental crisis?

  • Global warming, air pollution, overfishing etc (Source “Emergence of Environmental Humanities”)
  • Why haven’t we fixed it, the roadblocks, etc

Body 2: How will literature help?

  • People take action when they feel emotionally inclined (Source: “Blue Humanities”)
  • Literature evokes emotion and understanding
  • Speak on Mama Dlo (Mami wata) in terms of how she protects the ocean and now has people taking off their left shoe and walking backwards proving the power of literature

Body 3: So what? Why should we care and reconnect with the environment?

  • The world will live with or without us (Source: Sirenomelia)
  • The sea is of so much cultural significance and should be treated accordingly (Source “The Sea Is History”)
  • Tie it all together by saying not only do we need the environment to physically thrive but culturally, which then translates into emotionally, as well

Week 14: Individual Identity vs The Culture/History of a People

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For this weeks’ blog I want to zone in on the big debate I found to be posed in chapter 5: Does history and culture give significance to the human existence or does our own personalities and experiences do that? I feel like throughout the chapter Yetu was sort of going back in fourth between wanting to be apart of the culture and history of her people saying how “she missed being a part of not just the sea, but the whole world. Without the History, she felt out of place and out of time. She missed being connected to it all.” (Page 82) These are feelings are arising after she, herself, decided to abandon her people and let them remember the history of their past all by themselves, knowing it would bring them suffering and maybe forgetting it all together, as they were innately compelled to do. On the opposite side of that very same coin though, she understood that with “connection came responsibility. Duty choked independence and freedom.” These two differing views give me the impression that there is a fine line in honoring culture and giving up your own identity to follow a lifestyle that was made by a people at a time you didn’t exist to now exist in a time that they don’t.

One may ponder the idea of why should we remember our culture at all? Why dont we make our own new experiences as we go along? I think the answer to that perplexing question is that the feeling of belonging to something bigger than ourselves feeds our insatiable hunger to feel special; like we have a purpose and importance in this big world. I feel it’s important to find a balance between what came before you and what is presented now. Times are ever changing, therefore adjusting traditions in order to keep them from being fully rejected by the people it no longer serves can not only cultivate an environment that does not infringe upon personal expressions and freedoms, but also preserves that sense of belonging to a bigger purpose and therefore satisfying our inherently primal instinct for connection all in one fell swoop.

Week 13: Yemaja “Mother of Fish”

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The reading regarding African Mermaids was very interesting and telling of how interconnected the African people are with their environment as all of their gods and deities are linked to some part of nature. The story I wanted to focus on specifically is the one regarding Yemaja the “Mother of Fish”. When we are first introduced to her we are told that she is a water goddess who married her brother Shango, God of Thunder, and that she is associated with women, family, motherhood, and the arts. When the people of Yoruba were taken into the transatlantic slave trade, they took their beliefs about Yemaja with them and she is not worshiped in Brazil, Uruguay, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Cuba, and the United States. I found that to be very impressive, but also shocking due to the fact that she is very well known across many lands, even my own, yet this is the first time I am hearing her story; yet I’ve heard of the little mermaid a myriad of times. It simply goes to show the selectiveness in which stories are told and which are not. It’s important to represent every culture in the media so the rich history they bring with them are not forgotten.

On another note, I wanted to speak on the unsettling subjects within her story; maybe this is why Disney did not pick up this myth? In Yemaja’s story it is said that she marries her other brother, Aganju, and bores a child, Orungan. If the incest wasn’t unsettling enough, her son ends up having a lustful crush after her, and when her husband leaves, he takes advantage of her by force. She then runs away and he pursues after her, convincing her that he should be her husband sort of like the modern day side piece. Then basically with so much fear turns into an entire body of water which saves her from the current situation that she was in. I feel like as bizarre that it kind of does the same thing as when the women were thrown into the water were also saved by the water spirit. Although, Yemaja is the water spirit in this case, I can see how the water is a cleansing and safe environment through these lenses.

Eywa Is the Way

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Eywa is the Way

Sometimes it would seem that the capital, in human capital, has trumped the human and the environment at the cost of all humanity. In the movie Avatar, directed by James Cameron, the Na’vi people reject the human capitalist mindset and instead embrace the way of Eywa. Eywa is a sacred deity that is the collective consciousness of the land of Pandora as well as a representation of the interconnectedness with the Na’vi people and their land. In the film, the world has been run down of our own natural resources so we outsource to a place called Pandora which is being threatened by the Resources Development Administration (RDA), with the use of a United States military group, who wishes to strip the land of a precious material, Unobtanium, which was believed to cost 20 million dollars per kilo. That money paid for the scientific explorations of the RDA and lined the pockets of the higher ups in charge of the operation. Money, a human construct, has become the most important resource on Earth, above all else; even if it means destroying their world, or any other world, to get it. The relationship the Na’vi people have with their land and deity, Ewya, presents a lifestyle, rooted in deep respect and honor for their environment, mirrors the natural mindset and lifestyle humans should have been living all along, acknowledging our inherent connection with nature that has since been forsaken. 

The Na’vi people respect their land and every living creature that inhabits it due to their strong connection to the deity Eywa. This deity seems to be the mother goddess of the entire planet of Pandora; all living things are Eywa and the Na’vi people are caretakers of the land. The Tree of Souls, known as the Vitraya Ramunong, seems to be the most sacred place on Pandora to the Omatikaya clan, as they consider it to be the closest physical connection to Eywa. When you mix culture, religion, and beliefs with nature, it is only natural for people to begin to care about whatever it is that is in the center of that; nature. Nature cannot speak for itself to gain the love and respect of humans nor fend for itself against the humanistic greed for money and power that has taken over the collective consciousness of the human race since the 1760s. The culture of the Na’vi people is the driving force of why they live in harmony with nature; they see everything on their land as living with value and a purpose. The trees, water, animals etc. all have a natural level of respect that they garner just by being a part of the environment. In this ideological thinking, humans, or in this case Na’vi, are not apart from nature but rather a part; they hold no more importance than the animals around them. In one of the early scenes of the movie Jake Sully, a human who is occupying an Avatar to visit Pandora, is surrounded and attacked by animals that are similar to hyenas on Earth. He seems to be moments away from his death until a Na’vi native comes in and kills the pact who threaten Jake and scare away the rest. After absorbing what had just unfolded, Jake tries to thank the woman but she ignores him and walks away. As he follows her he again tries to force his gratitude upon her until she turns around and strikes Jake saying “No thank for this; this is only sad. They did not need to die” Jake is confused by this as he protests that they attacked him so he is not the “bad guy” in this scenario. Ultimately, the woman, who we later know as Neytiri, is trying to convey the message that it was Jake’s fault for being in their environment; because of his ignorance, all of those animals died despite being in their own home. This represents a clear example of how the Na’vi understand that all living things have their own respect and regard on this planet; that they are a part of this harmonious land, not the sole ruler. In human culture, this sort of mentality is not mirrored as  we hunt for sport because we see ourselves as apart from our land and as more important than any other aspect of nature. This sort of thinking is what got the humans in this film in the position of outsourcing in the first place: by not respecting the environment around them it began to revoke its natural offerings. 

While the Na’vi live in harmony with nature, the humans in this film have often disregarded the interconnectedness naturally shared between humans and nature, leading to severe consequences. The Na’vi attempt to teach the Sky People, humans from Earth that inhabit Avatars, their ways but ultimately not every person is convinced leading to the ultimate destruction of their home. The military group goes in and destroys the Tree of Souls, as the Unobtainium recides underneath it. In one fell swoop, not only did they wipe away ample culture, spiritual importance, and people, but they depleted a land that was once full of life, energy, and resources. The tree was destroyed and with it the spirit of the Na’vi people. Throughout the film the entire forest glowed literally and figuratively with light, a light that was representative of the harmonious balance that was cultivated by the Na’vi people. If the humans in this film had an ounce of respect for their environment that the Na’vi had for their land, it would seem that humans and Na’vi could live fruitful lives in harmony with these new peoples and the environment, but instead they chose greed and destruction; destroying a land that has existed for a millennia. All of this destruction and pain for money, a human construct, a piece of paper that will not feed them, that will not give them culture, purpose. The humans in this film are representative of our society today, people who do not care for the environment, but only the parts that are of resource. This sort of thinking is exactly what led the humans to deplete their own world of its resources in the first place. By separating humans from nature, the humanity in humans is also detached; without the connection of being one with the environment, we are sure to one day destroy the world and ourselves with it. 

The humans in this film pose as a clear example of the human-nature conflict, the idea that humans and our advancement are paramount, neglecting the world we live in, or the one the Na’vi inhabit, in order to get there no matter the price. Humans have the capacity to understand the gravity of the decisions made against the environment but because there is such a huge disconnect between people and the environment, it would seem that one day the Earth will have to remind them of how interdependent we are on each other to live. By recognizing the differences between the Na’vi’s harmonious coexistence with nature it begs us as humans to reconnect ourselves with our environment in order to live a better quality of life for ourselves and future generations. 

Week 12: Omambala: The Water Spirit

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The stop motion video titled The Water will Carry us Home was very pleasant to watch; out of all of the literature we have read and videos we have watched this one felt the most familiar in terms of what I’m used to seeing when speaking about mermaids or folktales. The video featured a water spirit Omambala and the quote that, “the water spirit Omambala brought us here. The water spirit Omambala will carry us home.” We are then shown the story of Omambala and how she came to save black slaves that were traveling on a ship to be sold off. There were slaves thrown overboard, mainly pregnant women, for an unknown reason. They were then saved by Omambala and turned into mermaids and their babies were born from clam shells.

After watching the video I still had questions so I googled who Omambala was and found the term Orisha which means Devine spirit in Yoruba religion. After learning that the video made a lot of sense as we essentially viewed the origin story of their main religious figure. Yoruba is one of the largest ethic groups in Nigeria. Now as far as why water or a water spirit became the focal point of their religion I am still unsure of. This video also sort of reminded me of Avatar and their relationship with the Eywa, the “All-Mother”. The Eywa is essentially the entire consciousness of Pandora, it is Pandora. This is why the Na’vi people are so interconnected with their environment as they respect their land and treat it with honor as they are harvesting a good relationship with the Eywa. Although the Na’vi people are fictional and blue, I do believe there are some clear connections with them and the Yorubian people as they both worship a spirit of nature, understanding the value of environment and how we as people are interconnected to it. It shows how the land and water all carry history of people, the environment, and how we have interacted with each other throughout time. The water and land will be here when we are not, just as it was before humans, and it will be able to tell the tales of our time.

Week 11: Sirenemelia Video Analysis Tangent

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This week we had to watch a video called Sirenemelia, a six minute video of ominous clips of icy lands, dark waters, and a mermaid-like creature swimming around. There was no audio or much context to go off of. One thing I did pick up was that we do not know much about the ocean and its inhabitants so that feeling of not knowing what the video was about or it having context may have been trying to emulate that same lack of knowledge we have with the water. When the mermaid showed up in the short film, I thought about the mystery or mermaid and that highly debated question of if they truly exist or existed at some point. I feel like when you watch this video someone might feel uncomfortable by it or even a bit scared of the water or unknown, but instead this video made me curious. While watching this video, due to the lack of structure and context, I let my mind fill in the gaps and began to relate it to a TikTok I saw the other week; it was a video of a preacher going back and fourth with a woman in the crowd as to why she should believe Jesus was resurrected if there were no medical records to prove it. His rebuttal to her was that “they did not keep medical records in the first century.” She then exclaimed how convenient that was there was no such thing back then. the preacher than uses her frustration and flips it explaining how it was “convenient” I’ve her to create a condition that she knew was impossible to meet in order for her to become a believer of Jesus’ resurrection. He then goes on to name many well known philosophers, such as Helmer, Aristotle, Sophocles, and so on, that she provide medical records for them. He argues how historical knowledge is not based on medical records, but instead trustworthy eyewitness testimonies; that those philosophers really did live because there’s historical evidence that says that they did therefore the historical evidence that says Jesus resurrected from the dead should be treated with the same willingness to accept as truth. Although I am not trying to equate legitimacy of Jesus and Christianity with mermaids, I thought that the idea of eyewitness testimony from days where there were no records or film to capture information to pass it on, poses the idea that maybe there once was real mermaid and sirens but society just all agreed their literary records were made up entirely. We accept some things as truth in the old dusty books we read, yet other information that is too unfamiliar we deem untrue, but what if it was all real? I say all of that to say that the SIrenemelia video made me revisit the idea that our society as a whole knows very little about the ocean and what may reside in it; perhaps the image of the mermaid was constructed for human beings to learn from and she is made up to fit an agenda, or maybe someone really did see a mermaid or siren at one point and shared that knowledge through books and eyewitness testimony.

Week 10: A Continuance of Attempting to Link Human and Ocean

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I felt as though that the readings this week was another spoonful of humans trying to redefine the ocean to the humans who crafted its definitions and boundaries prior. Each text attempts to combine oceanic history with human history; supposing that there should be no distinction between the two. In my pessimistic view on this situation remains the same: to solve the problem of humans intrinsically destroying our own environment, we must convince people that they should care. In order for this to happen any producer of literature should aim to romanticize the ocean or anthropomorphize it. Many people care about things other than themselves like animals, but the world isn’t 100% vegetarian, though some are, and that niche population helps more than not. The only way people will do anything is if it immediately, or in a short amount of time, gives them a reward in return. The world faces so many environmental issues created by humans, but the average person living their daily life will not concern themselves with what happens to the planet when they drive their car to work, what happens to the trash when they throw it in the bin, what happens to the single use plastics they use after going out for a bite to eat, because why would they? If the effects of these decisions seem harmless then why bother to make sure? In my opinion there is one introduction that I felt missed the mark in terms of successfully pulling in the reader to ultimately make them care about the ocean.

The intro for The Ocean Reader had a strong first page as it directly spoke to the reader and dramatically challenged preconceived notions. One being that, “—the Ocean [has] also seemed unchangeable, inexhaustible, and impervious to the onslaught of the harvesters. But such is not the case.” (Duke UP, 1). I feel as though many people, including myself, have seen the ocean to be this huge, mighty force, that couldn’t possibly be affected by tiny little humans. Therefore, by debunking this perception of the ocean, the author shifts the perception to the idea that we are hurting, for lack of better words, the ocean by the things we do in our daily lives ie: pollution, CO2 admissions, overfishing, etc. This take is very effective in my opinion, but where he lost me as a reader, and in effectiveness, is when he goes on a spiel of numbers on the depths and reach the ocean has. As a reader, I cannot even fathom such numbers and if I can’t imagine it, then it’s not real, in tern not having an effect on me. Therefore, the direct approach to make me rethink my own ideas or to make me see the ocean in a new light is much more effective in terms of making me want to get up and save the ocean.