A lot of people attack the sea, I make love to it.

(Celine Cousteau)

Late one summer when I was a little girl I went to a store that would have been something like a CVS today. We were buying supplies for the school year. I was told to select folders and left in the aisle to peruse cartoon characters and depictions of action figures. I was always a slow, methodical child and as I carefully examined each pink princess and the like, shaking my head no and placing it back, my eye flickered on something wonderful. I picked up a folder with a photograph of fish swimming in a very blue ocean. Written somewhere was the name Jacques Cousteau, I immediately knew this was exactly what I wanted. I ended up keeping those school folders and using them over and over again until they were finally tatters. Years later I was in Paris when he died. I was rushing through the Metro when I saw a newspaper posting his death. 'No! Please don't go, No." Perhaps because I have always lived by the ocean, perhaps because I am a water child, or perhaps there is no explanation, but there is something about this man and his work which have always resonated with me. His work lives on in his children, grandchildren and countless others. What a marvelous man.

When one man, for whatever reason,
has the opportunity to lead an extraordinary life,
he has no right to keep it to himself.
Jacques Cousteau