Life Ain't a Disney Movie...

Earlier today I took my children to the Living Coast Discovery Center, formerly known as the Chula Vista Nature Interpretive Center. As with many places I take my children; this visit brought forth as many new thoughts towards the future as it did memories of the past.

The Center is located on San Diego Bay just south of the Sweetwater River; situated on land once known as Gunpowder Point. In the days before World War One, the point held factory that processed kelp and rendered potash, a vital component of gunpowder; hence the name. Today, the LCDS hosts all manner of local wildlife; natives of air, land and sea and some inhabiting all three.

As a child of the 1980’s, my buddies and I used to hike the land near the bay, long before the center was built. We explored the long closed packing houses that once served Chula Vista’s once-thriving orange and lemon industry and when we dared to venture closer to the bay, we would cautiously the long-empty concrete holding tanks and pretend we were modern-day Rambo’s sent back in time to help with the war effort.

Naturally, our main goal was to spot wildlife and not knowing any better, we caught our fair share of stingrays and leopard sharks. Had we been aware how vital they were to their environment, we might have done things differently. But we were boys doing what boys do best; seek, explore and learn.

When I was showing my daughter the petting pool, one of the volunteers gave her the opportunity to hold an empty shark egg. This was the kind of hands-on education I had as a child, without the scrapes, muddy shoes and worried, angry then finally relieved Mom waiting at the door after getting home long after the sun went down. Watching my daughter and my sons laugh and learn as they had face to face meetings with these animals brought back a few memories from a decade ago when I worked in a seafood restaurant. This place was ground zero for people who live the sad denial that for us to eat, sometimes something else has to die.

Morbid sounding I know, but read on.

Over a decade ago I worked at a seafood restaurant. There was a rather large saltwater aquarium in the lobby and invariably, each shift brought forth the sounds of excited children pointing at our waterborne friends and shouting the names of popular cartoon characters. Naturally, the children would excitedly tap on the glass; their young minds thinking that the fish would respond to their human-given names. Invariably, the parents would join in on the tapping, giving dirty looks to any mature adult who would ask them not to tap on the aquarium.

This was a regular occurrence and as I watched the children who cared about nothing more than their false belief they met a living, breathing cartoon character; I realized that the only thing sadder than a child who doesn’t know the difference between real and cartoon is a parent who is equally ignorant. During this time, I had a rather spirited exchange with a woman who told me how mean I was for “Killing those poor little lobsters”, referring to the live Maine Lobsters we had in the tank.

Given her initial demeanor, I knew that offering my usual sendoff of “Have a nice evening” would be considered rude, I decided to go all in. So in response to this woman who chose to eat at a seafood restaurant, who chose to order more than a few formerly-living creatures for dinner and who all but accused me of the senseless murder of the “poor little lobsters”, I said “Ma’am, those lobsters are no more innocent than the forty five shrimp you just ate and they’re no cuter than the turkey you ate last Thanksgiving…”

It was one of those moments where I felt I was sure to be fired but instead of complaining, she walked out mumbling to herself, determined to get the last word in a conversation she knew she’d lost as soon as I offered my honest response.

Without going into too much detail, it reminds me of a former coworker who told me how evil hunting was. To each his own, I was raised in a hunting and fishing family and I am all for the legal and ethical Sacred Harvest. But the funny thing was, this coworker was eating a bacon cheeseburger AND a side of hot wings; meaning that her order contributed to the death of three different animals.

She said “Yeah, but I didn’t kill them myself” as if having someone else do the dirty work for you is any better. We continued the discussion and I could see in her eyes that she visualized me as the shadowy figure from Bambi, blasting away at cute little bunnies while they were romping and frolicking in the forest. This former coworker is a rather intelligent person, having achieved great success in her chosen field. Yet in the field of nature’s reality, she and many others would get a failing grade.

It makes me wonder just how many people out there get their education from Disney movies without realizing the need for true education. Don’t get me wrong, my daughter loves ‘Frozen’ and I love the way she sings along to it, but you can bet I have much more hope for her future when I see her doing things like having a hands-on education with animals than I do when she’s playing with her dolls. And as for Disney movies, I don’t mind them too much. But I have to say that ‘The Lion King’ is the only one I feel at least partly offers a true education of the natural world.

I think back all my years and all the movies I’ve seen and I ask myself “What did I really learn?” Thankfully, I learned the difference between fantasy and reality and beyond entertainment, fantasy is useless and at times harmful. There are no ‘Magic Mirrors’ that can tell us the future, although taking a figurative look in the mirror can produce some positive results for the future. And wishing does nothing more than lead to more wishing; last time I checked, Tony Gwynn didn’t wish for eight Batting Titles. He worked his ass off and earned every one of them. And unless you’re on some good drugs, your brooms and mops aren’t going to get up themselves and do the cleaning for you.

This may sound like a harsh criticism from a man who spent a lot of his years in an alcohol-induced fog, living a pathetic fantasy of his own but these thoughts have been rattling around in my head ever since I was in grade school and I would talk to friends about deer hunting. Contrary to the belief of many of my classmates, my grandfather and I had never shot and killed a cartoon character; nor has anyone else in the history of human existence.

While researching some of the particulars of this piece, I was reminded of the Sunday mornings of 1986 and 1987; when I would groggily wake up to help my brother fold and deliver newspapers for his paper route. We both wanted the sports section first but since that was usually the only one he read; I was fine with starting off with the comics or the local sections. Many panels of print during those years were dedicated to the fight for Gunpowder Point, long forgotten memories of plans to build a 400-room hotel near where the center sits now and of the barren and unfinished terminus of Highway 54 as local, federal and environmental groups haggled over its building.

Over the years I met several volunteers from the center, each of them giving their time and knowledge for the common good; in this case the need to preserve precious wild land and its inhabitants. I don’t know their backgrounds but it’s a safe bet to say that though they may have watched Disney Movies as children, someone, at some time be it a parent, grandparent or neighbor taught them the value of nature; the truth behind animated entertainment.

They say little girls are often enamored with the idea of growing up to be a Princess; a fantasy created in large part by the movies. But I would be much more proud of my daughters and absolutely delighted if they were to say something like “Daddy, I want to be a zookeeper” or “Daddy, I want to work at the hospital where they help sick animals.”

So they’ll be allowed to watch Disney movies, albeit under Daddy’s watchful eye. And for every trip we might take to Disneyland, we’ll spend double the time afoot and afield; at the Zoo, on the mountain trails and exploring the tide pools. I owe as much to them and I owe it to Mother Nature.

I consider this one of my most important tasks as a father, because life ain’t a Disney Movie…