i came across this blog today and i want you to read the bio with me and try and conjure up in your mind an image of the person who might possibly be writing it:

“A few years ago, I stumbled upon the Vaquita, a tiny endangered porpoise. I was heartbroken when I read about its story, so I decided to start this blog, along with many other efforts to help this species. I post poems, facts, and updates about the Vaquita weekly, and have other pages to help inform you about the Vaquita and its helpers. I hope this blog will help save a species in need.”

if this is all the info you have, [and take another minute and read it once more to really try and figure this out], what picture comes to your mind? is it a male or a female? someone with many years of life experience to draw upon, or a young child? someone who speaks with an English accent? or are we talking European? Australian or New Zealand perhaps? or is it someone from my continent of Africa or my present home of Americaland?

who do you picture writing this?

but wait, here is one more set of clues as to the authorship of said blog:

“I love playing tennis, birdwatching, hiking, even school, but my main focus is animal conservation through writing.”

for me, ‘animal conservation through writing,’ and i instantly have a woman in mind… ‘playing tennis’ and ‘birdwatching’ makes her fifty plus years of age… hiking throws a potential hint of a curveball… but it’s the word ‘school’ that seems out of place…?

it is in fact the line i omitted, that starts off this blog bio, which fills in a lot more of the gaps:

“I am an 11-year-old boy living in Bethlehem, PA.”

well slap-my-face-to-the-side-of-a-pig-and-roll-me-in-the-mud. It’s called V-Log and it is largely about the saving of a species of porpoise called the Vaquita [of which there are only about 250 left in the world] and you can check it out here, and it does contain poetry like this, and it really just moved and excited me to see an 11 year old confident young man with poetic gifts and more really being passionate about something and then actively living out/chasing his passion in the best way he knows how… [where is Oprah or Ellen when you need them?]

his blog profile name is goldenliontamarin and it describes him well. we can learn a lot from him and i hope we do.

if you don’t have a passion and a purpose or aren’t pursuing it, then there is a really strong chance that you aren’t living, you are just existing. let’s learn from this young 11 year old guy [who seems a lot older than a lot of older people i know] and really start sucking the marrow out of life. in a good way.

choose living.