The Whaleback Lighthouse

Medium: Ink and graphite on Arches paper, mounted to birch panel, varnished

Dimensions: 14" x 14"

Long Island, New York

The Story:
Three hundred and sixty. The number repeated in his mind like a broken record. Three hundred and sixty left. Maybe. Maybe more, maybe less. Likely less.
He heard the humans on a ship overhead say it one day, and had thought about it ever since. They were discussing the number of North Atlantic Right whales left. He was one of them, one of the rare few remaining. He wanted to find a way out of these dark thoughts, a way out of the hopelessness of the future. He swam far and wide in search of answers to how his kind could someday thrive again. He had long ago befriended a gull, and their odd friendship had continued to flourish over the years. He had explained his worries time and time again to his friend, as he was an excellent listener. The gull would always nod as he listened, responding to his friend’s worries with, “If only whales could fly.”
One time, after a particularly emotional discussion of his hopelessness, the gull’s comment got him thinking. He thought about flying, about leaving this place. There were some whales left, yes, but ship strikes and unfortunate encounters took all of those whom he knew over the years. He thought about it endlessly until the next time he saw his gull friend.
“I’ve been thinking a lot about that line you always say… about if only whales could fly.”
The gull smiled softly, shaking his head. “If only, my friend.”
“Well, here’s what bothers me about it,” said the whale. “You have a tail, I have a tail. You have two wings, I have two flippers. You can dive and swim in the water just like me. So why can’t I fly? It seems to me someone long ago said whales can’t fly, and no one bothered to question that truth. Maybe many years ago they used to say that gulls couldn’t swim until some smart gull questioned it and showed you all what you could do. Maybe the problem isn't that whales can't physically learn to fly, but that no one has ever had a reason to try, until now.”
As his friend finished, the gull sat in silence, thinking to the rhythm of the tide. “I can teach you,” the gull finally said, looking over at his friend from the rock he perched on, the whale's head sticking out of the almost black water. The whale smiled.
From that conversation, they began every day with a flying lesson. The gull usually perched atop the Whaleback Lighthouse for the amazing viewpoint it offered, as well as the bit of good luck he hoped it had, being that it was named after his friend’s kind. Day after day the whale would try to fly, jumping higher and higher out of the water with each attempt, yet unable to ever keep going. The gull saw his friend losing hope with each passing day.
The gull thought about a funny little scene he had witnessed one day while flying over a town just a few miles down the way. He had seen a small girl learning to ride her bicycle with her family. Two other humans held on to her from either side, and ran with her as she started to pedal. Soon enough, she was doing it all on her own. It occurred to him that maybe all his friend needed was a guide to help get him started, and that he could keep going on his own after that.
The next day, as the moon rose over the water, he asked a bunch of his gull friends to come help his friend in need. This time, when his whale friend made his usual jump out of the water and strained to keep going into the air, the gulls flew under him. All together they pushed him higher and higher. They pushed and pushed against him, flapping vigorously in the moonlight. The whale began to cry tears of joy, for he realized that he was flying. One by one the birds stopped pushing him, but the whale did not fall. The gull was right; all the whale ever needed was support to help get him going.
The whale knew that he would dedicate his life to teaching other whales how to fly, for he felt that a time when they might need to escape these dangerous waters and seek out refuge was imminent if nothing changed. And even if things did change for the better, he still wanted to teach the other whales about his newfound love of flying.
More than anything, he felt love for his gull friend. The whale now knew that one can do anything that they truly believe they can, but he never would have realized this had his friend not loved him enough to show him.