Forgive me Mother Ocean for I have sinned.

It has been...well, forever... since my last ocean confession.

I accuse myself of the following sins:

1. I forgot to ask the waiter for “No plastic straw, please” and he brought my water with two straws.

2. I drove when I easily could have walked so that I could listen on the radio to Duke play basketball in the NCAA tournament.

3. I seriously had no idea where my dive buddy was while following that huge whale shark.

4. And then I encouraged everyone in the boat to lean over the gunwale and hug a grey whale.

5. Later, I ate some really, really great fish tacos and had no clue whatsoever what kind of fish it was, how it was caught, who caught it or where. I do know it wasn’t shrimp, though.

6. I went on a cruise. It was a ship full of musicians in the Caribbean and I got to have a beer with Ryan Bingham, Emmylou Harris and her mom. Yes, I enjoyed it.

7. Sharks do scare the hell out of me sometimes.

8. I still don’t completely understand how in the world a sea turtle finds the beach it was born on, thirty years later from 7,000 miles away. That’s just nuts.

9. I haven’t actually ever seen the TV show Whale Wars.

10. I am absolutely addicted to Swedish Fish and Turtle Chocolates.

I know the penance will include one or more of the following, which I will dutifully commit to undertaking: beach clean-ups, ocean outreach, tide pool walks, save-the-sea-turtles petitions, and volunteering for my favorite blue groups.

Glory be to Mother Ocean, and to our one and only Blue Marble, and to the Sea Turtles; as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be for ever.

I remain your humble servant.

Amen.