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This week I got involved in another project perfect for CoVid time. Volunteering to help translate a whaling journal from the original cursive manuscript to text so it can be put online. I was transported away from this world to a time when men sailed from New Bedford to Hawaii to hunt whales. Some days they would lower the boats threes times and return with nothing. Other days they would not even see a whale, and on other days they may see as many as 30 ships all “cutting & boiling”. I can’t imagine the smells and gore, and certainly pityed the whales. It’s a reminder of how prolific so many resources were, and how carelessly we have plundered many of fthem into extinction or near extinction. I wonder now if even the very oceans that sustained this adventurous crew are too far gone. I hope not, but the debate between lives versus livelihoods has not been resolved and we don’t necessarily learn certain lessons quickly.