People Protect What They Love

As a little boy, my life didn’t seem much different than that of my friends. The wonders and mysteries of buried treasure or slimy worms lying in wait to be discovered in our back yard or just beyond the fence filled both my waking hours and my dream time. I spent hours propped up on the washing machine to get a better view thru the window at passing deer and birds. Losing myself in this fantastic natural world, my chores often took a back seat. My mother would occasionally reel me in to remind me of them and my teachers would do the same for my homework. I am a dreamer by birth... or is it by influence? 

From the perspective of a child, growing up on the shoulders of a famous man was not as strange as the public imagines. “Captain Planet”, as Jacques-Yves Cousteau was often called, was first and foremost my grandfather. He loved his family and even took extra care to share time with the children when he wasn’t half way around the world. To him, children were the essence of life and hope. JYC, as those close called him, saw boundless curiosity, energy, passion, creativity and love reflected in the eyes of the world’s youth. Whenever we were with him, my sister Celine and I, would eagerly be entranced by tales of exotic cultures, the lives of dinosaurs, stories of his underwater adventures, the beauty of our planet and its fragility...

Read more from Fabien Cousteau HERE.