Riddle of the Great White Shark

When I was in Vietnam, 1971, in Cam Ranh Bay, I spent sometime along the shores of the South China Sea. I met old man, one evening; I was but twenty-three years old he was in a nearby village that the South Vietnamese and North Vietcong used, the South by day, and the North by night. I had drank in the village before, even though it was off limits simply because of this, and if I’d get too drunk, I’d stay the night, and in the mornings I’d jump over the fence, and run back to my company. It was several miles always, but I had good lungs. Well, this one even an old man perhaps seventy or more sat in an open aired hut, there were other folks there, but I was the only US Soldier present. He asked if I had ever heard of the ‘The Riddle of the Great White Shark?’ I was drinking Saki, bought him a shot, it is a strong kind of wine for sorts, I said “No,” and added “Why?” (It had seemed he took a liking to me, and I to him.)
“If you are interested in the riddle, buy me another drink and see me tomorrow just beyond the village here, on the shore and I will show you something.”
Cam Ranh Bay had, if anything, beautiful white sandy beaches, and is considered to be one of the world’s best inlets.
In the morning I met him, got permission to have the day off, and we got into his boat, and we paddled out a distance, not too far, and he told me “We will dive here, and I want you to follow me, and what I point out, I want you to observe, and remember, and when we get back into the boat, I want you to tell me what you saw.”
And so I did follow him, after throwing out an anchor, and I dived with the old man, he swam like a fish, for myself, I had learned to swim at the YMCA, when I was a kid, and was good at it, could hold my breath about three minutes, and we swam down to the floor of the sea, and we were in front of an entrance of sort, which lead into a rocky sort of cave, and there the bones of a Great White Shark remained, it was stuck into the entrance of the cave, blocking it somewhat, it actually was wedged tightly on each side, thus it never made its way into the cave.
We stayed there less than a minute, and back up again we went, perhaps total time, less than three minutes, because I was not gasping for air, but I felt tightness in my chest, and a little light headed.
“Well,” said the old man, “What did you see?”
“Bones stuck in the entrance to a cave!” I said rapidly.
“But why,” asked the old man, “why did the shark try to get into the cave?”
I deliberated in my head on that for a while, as we rowed back to shore. Said, “I suppose he was hungry, and his prey got into the cave and he went after it and got suck, and died there.” It was an over implication, but the best I could come up with.
The old man looked at me and laughed, said “I don’t think so, no sir, the shark is not that dumb, he is king and there are many fish about here, as you already saw, do you think he would push himself so hard as to not be able to wiggle himself free?”
I didn’t answer that question of course, feeling it was a rhetorical one. The old man wouldn’t tell me the rest of the riddle, and I left him where he was, once back on shore. But the night before I was to go home, he sought me out, and we drank again at that little outdoor hut, Saki, which I paid for, and I got him drunk, and asked, “Tell me the rest of the riddle before I go home?”
“Why,” he told me, adding “if I give you the answer, you’ll never seek the truth of the matter out, you will be like so many, bury it into your head, never to find it again. This will make you think, and I suppose my answer is a guess, but close to the truth.”
“Perhaps I will,” I said, “but you are thirsty, and I will buy you Saki, as much as you can drink until you pass out, for the answer.”
He laughed again at me, but he said this, “When this particular shark was born, I used to go down and play with it, feed it, it swam into the cave, not sure if that was its home, but that is where it swam, and I swam with it, in that cave, then one day, the shark disappeared; just like that. Actually, it had gotten so big it could hardly make its way out of the cave the last few times it went in, and thus, went about its way one final day.”
The old man stopped there. And I asked, “So tell me the rest?” and he said somewhat curiously, “You still do not understand the riddle do you?” I guess I didn’t I just looked at him, and ordered another bottle of Saki, and he laughed, and opened the bottle and added “Sometimes we want to got back where it all started, perhaps do something you haven’t done, or something you had intended to do, and never did. Perhaps he was looking for that—something. Perhaps he thought if he could go back to where he could find whatever he was missing, or lost, things would be different, ok. But he was not the same creature he was so long ago, and he needed to understand this, which he didn’t perhaps until it was too late, and I was too old to play with him now anyhow, and death sits no longer on its tail and waits for one to do what they felt they intended to do, and never did, so whatever you intend to do in life, do it while you can, do not wait, you may not be able to go back where it all started. That my friend is the core of the riddle to me.”
And I thanked him, and got up, and left, I never saw him again.

Then it was in 2005, a friend came to me in Roseville, Minnesota, sat down at my table, at a bookstore, his name being Gary, he made slip cases for my books, a master at it, and said “I bet you have grabbed every opportunity in life, life has given you!” It was more of a statement than a question I think but I turned it into a statement-question. And I said “No,” he looked at me as if I should have a follow up, so I added, “One time, and only one time, I didn’t grab life when it was offered to me, and I regretted it for ten-years, but I never let it happen a second time, and I made up for the loss.”
Incidentally, last I heard, Gary and his wife, Susan were in India…!

#2364 ((4-28-2008)(1:15 PM))