About five years ago I was walking on the beach at Bald Head Island with then six-year-old Sully Davis. Sully saw something that caught his attention and he ran ahead to check it out. It was a mangled mess of seaweed, driftwood, trash, and some unidentifiable organic matter that had washed up onto the shore.
Sully said, “Hey, what’s that?”
Always interested in the depths of gullibility of the six-year-old mind, I said, “That, my friend, is a Sea Beaver.”
Sully said, “Sea Beaver! What’s that?”
I said, “Sea Beavers are very rare creatures that are only found deep near the ocean floor. This one must have gotten into shallow water and lost a fight with a shark or something. You are really lucky to find a Sea Beaver, even a dead one, because Sea Beavers avoid people and are seldom seen by anybody.”
Sully picked up the dead Sea Beaver with a stick and took the carcass back to an area of the beach near our rental house.
The following day we were walking on the beach again with several adult family members including my son, Patrick, when Sully saw another washed up pile of debris. He shouted, “Hey, another Sea Beaver!” Patrick, who had many years of experience with my gullibility tests asked Sully what he was talking about. I heard Patrick ask, “Who told you that was a Sea Beaver?” Even as he was asking I could see Patrick’s eyes turning toward me. Patrick leaned over Sully and said, “Don’t you know that you can’t believe anything he tells you?”
Sully looked a little disappointed that the rare Sea Beaver was not real. But his disappointment was short lived because his beautiful six-year-old mind took over. Sully wanted to believe in the rare Sea Beaver. So, he did. In fact, Sully and I went on to invent a substantial mythology around the Noble Sea Beaver. We decided that Sea Beavers were strong, courageous, freedom-loving creatures that did just what they wanted to do…every day. They enjoyed their lives and lived in the present. They didn’t worry about useless stuff that was out of their control. They did not care what other sea creatures thought about them. They just focused on their unique Sea Beaver skills and abilities and did things they were good at. After centuries of evolution the Sea Beavers were now the most confident mammals on the ocean floor. They were also good role models for the rest of us.
Sully decided we should give his Sea Beaver a decent burial. The following day we took the Sea Beaver carcass to a secluded spot on the beach and we buried it. We placed a driftwood marker above the gravesite and we said a few respectful comments about the Noble Sea Beaver.
This week eleven-year-old Sully, his little brother, Finn, and I were back at Bald Head Island. Sully taught Finn about the legend of the Sea Beaver and he invited Finn to join us at a memorial service at the burial site of the original Sea Beaver. It was a touching service.
