The Whale at the End of the World

by John Ironmonger

‘Most of life,’ Jeremy would say, ‘is like driving on a motorway. We have no choice but to keep moving forward. The only control we have is over the speed of travel. But every now and then we pass an exit. We have just an instant to decide. Stay on the highway and nothing will change. Or turn off and find yourself in an unfamiliar town. Over the course of just a few days,’ Jeremy would say, ‘Joe Haak would turn off the highway several times. He would walk away from his bank. He would walk into the sea. He would make the decision to rescue the whale. Joe was not a procrastinator,’ Jeremy Melon said. ‘Joe was the kind of man who made choices. He made choices and he lived with the consequences.’

Human beings aren’t jigsaw pieces. We don’t suddenly come upon someone who happens to be the exact match for us. We need to flex our own personalities and our own lives to accommodate another person. And they have to do the same for us. That takes time. It doesn’t happen at first sight.