An early morning walk on the Jersey Shore. A breeze wafts salted air off the ocean. A pod of dolphins jumps beyond the waves. Suddenly something large breaks the surface. A blast of mist rises. A whale spouts. We look in awe. Seconds later it dives and is gone. We continue our walk and as we pass by others, they look at us, smiling, asking, “Did you see the whale?” We look back and say, “Yes!” There is a communal sense of gratitude that something so simple, so unexpected, has lifted all of us that morning on the Jersey Shore.
Steve Saper is a Senior Adjunct Professor of English as a Second Language in Westchester County, New York.