A Thought on saving lives.

Delivered on The Today programme on June 15th 2023.

“Anyone can drown,” says the RNLI. “No one should.”

I don’t know the name of the man who saved me from drowning when I was a child, but I’ll  remember the sound of his voice forever. As I panicked and thrashed in the waves, my head going under, I choked and swallowed mouthfuls of salty water. And then he pulled me from the sea with a brawny arm and an outstretched hand. I didn’t know any of his Spanish words, but I still understood him: “It’s ok. You’re safe now. I’m here.” Instant emotional connection. He sounded like home.

Marine biologist Roger Payne, who died this week, gave us a new emotional connection, when he introduced the world to the power of whale song, in 1967.  Before we heard this ancient sound, whales were nothing more than big, lumbering creatures, and were slaughtered on an industrial scale.  Rather than using data to persuade people that this was  barbaric, he instead used their mesmeric song to appeal to the heart. Hearing that haunting sound, you can’t help but experience a connection: these are creatures who know and live and feel… just like you and me.

Roger Payne thought the greatest failure of humans was our refusal to acknowledge our interdependence on others. For me, all living things play a part in the bigger story of creation. No matter how numerous, no matter how small, all belong to God.  On land and in the sea. All animals. All people. Whales, microscopic creatures, shoals of fish, illegal migrants in flimsy boats.

The RNLI saved 108 lives in the Channel last year. Simon Ling, head of lifeboats, has said "We've had babies thrown at our lifeboats, women screaming, men screaming.” Regardless of the rights and wrongs of illegal channel crossings, this kind of human distress must be a sound far more haunting than whale song.

Learning how to speak whale has helped us to understand that these are creatures worth fighting for.  But perhaps there are other languages we need to become fluent in, in order for us to connect across difference.  Compassion. Empathy. Understanding. Love. These are the languages of God, and they transcend differences in appearance, religion, or nationality.  Stripped of all these things, we are all just creatures of the earth.  There is more than one way for us to show compassion to those seeking sanctuary, but in a moment of crisis, to the drowning man in the sea, the outstretched arm and soothing voice of the lifeguard sounds like home.