Yet another quick piece because time keeps slipping away. Marc and his family shared the same halte municipal as Asad and I on the south coast of the Gaspé Peninsula. I had an inkling they were from France because they had such a to-do affair for lunch, complete with a bottle of wine. I hope I’m not stereotyping too much, I just mean I was strongly reminded of French culture by their…lunch.
Anyway, we chatted before Asad and I hit the road again and Marc said he was a scuba diver. Plongeur. I asked what he liked about scuba diving and he didn’t hesitate to explain, but I could tell words weren’t quite enough.
“La sérénité,” he said. “The serenity. It’s a whole other world of peace and calm. Far below the surface, the water is still and it slows you down. It’s a whole other world.” He teaches youth how to scuba dive as well. “Not just the technical skills. We teach them to care for the ocean. We never touch ocean life, for example, the fish, the turtles, the coral. We respect them because they are fragile.”
“We need a young generation to protect the ocean like never before.”