Once There Was A Spot: A draft obituary for Mr. Mobile Bay and Miss Mobile-Delta

Shortly before their 5,000th Anniversary, Mr. Mobile Bay (Latest Pleistocene-Earliest Anthropocene) and his lifelong partner, Miss Mobile-Tensaw Delta (Early Holocene-Earliest Anthropocene), succumbed to indifference in the year of their Creator, late 2020s. Mr. Bay was the offspring?of Post-glacial Geology and Fresh Water Rivers. Around 6,000 years ago, his formative years were spent as a shallow meandering rivulet exploring the channels of the inland Gulf basin carved into the offshore continental shelf.??

Mr. Bay?and Miss Delta were childhood sweethearts. Local folks say they were “soul mates,” “kindred spirits,” “kissing cousins,” that theirs was “a marriage made in Heaven." An award-winning author even called their prodigious union “America’s Amazon” because their progeny was equal to that of anywhere else in the world. The couplet flourished at the intersection of the Gulf Coast and Interior Forested Riverways, creating a river-channeled oasis of rich diversity and producing so many children and grandchildren they ran out of alphabets, numerals, and dang near languages. All of their progeny thrived in the subtropical playground and built upon the legacy bequeathed them of humility and service,?equity and charity for all, with the odd predator sprinkled here and there for the purpose of instruction in checks-and-balances accounting. Together, the Bay-Delta lineage operated a multi-faceted Commons Concern with global reach that generated climatic stability, habitat for countless species, food supplies for two-legged creatures, filtration services, oxygen-carbon exchanges, jewels of enchantment sparkling across the seasons, rollicking picnics for the entire Bayside and hinterland denizens, and serene, ethereal sunrises and sunsets. These daily theatrical performances by Mr. Bay and Miss Delta were free of charge to any and all--Experiences and moments that took away the breath and nurtured the soul of every participant. Whether rooted or passing through, folks with a lick of sense just knew to stop and steep in the magic. With a servant’s heart, the Bay-Delta holy?union labored in love to reveal wonder, beauty, reverence, justice to all who came into their presence. There was no such thing as a stranger, no one left hungry or thirsty,?without hope, courage or faith for what tomorrow might bring.?Utopia in Alabama, some people said. That is, until the two-leggeds got too big for their britches.?

Mr. Bay endured onslaughts over the final century of his life from activities to the North as the extractive industries came to the Cumberland Plateau and all points South along the upland river valleys. All of these small slights produced lesions and scar tissue that came to cover his entire body and caused progressive immunodeficiency over the years. His complexion, once clear, became muddy and blemished. Closer to home, Mr. Bay and Miss Delta were viciously attacked in the boom years by unbridled housing developments, two-legged effluent, and bayside contamination which resulted in disability and impaired mobility in their golden?years. The copious winged, marine and fresh-water creatures that were shaped by Mr. Bay and Miss Delta--each parent nurturing and teaching, yielding space and sustenance in their own distinctive parenting style—could no longer move between the Gulf and Upland nurseries as they had done for millennia. Jubilees and fish-tales became the "just-so" stories of senile, grunting porch-rockers. Ultimately, the Bay-Delta lineage of doting and loyal descendants—offering gifts from their own crafts and trades—could no longer care for Mr. Bay and Miss Delta,?as they themselves suffered immunosuppression, declining health and fatal fatigue.

Mr. Bay, assuring Miss Delta that he was going on up ahead, went first. On the death certificate, the Coroner listed “suffocation" as the proximal cause of death. Though local folks claimed the collapse of the Berry Power Plant coal-ash pond was a contributing factor, the forensic pathologist said that as for the ultimate cause, well, indifference was both necessary and sufficient. A victim of "broken-heart syndrome," Miss Delta lingered a tad longer, deteriorating daily until emaciation overwhelmed the skeletal vestige of her former self. Two-legged beneficiaries of the Bay-Delta largess were too harried to notice the signs of deterioration or to offer palliative care. Upon their passing, few two-leggeds came to mourn. A memorial service was held only in the dispersed hearts of the Sentient. Sadly, there were no surviving relatives and the Commons Concern was placed into receivership,?the debt to be assumed by the two-legged community on a pro rata share basis. Projections forecast regional insolvency and eventual bankruptcy for fixed-asset establishments, the tourist industry, imagination, inspiration and other sundry intangibles. In sum, anyone who shared in, or enjoyed, the bounty will be encumbered forthwith, experts are predicting.?

In lieu of native flowers (to spare those facing threatened status or imminent extinction), refreshments reliant on potable water, or donations to tree-hugger organizations, the Grief-stricken are requested to tell their families the love story of Mr. Bay and Miss Delta, to reconnect with creatures small and large throughout the Whole of Holy Alabama, to beg for mercy from their Creator and pray for release from their indentured servitude to Things—to put People above Things and Nature above People. "Don't let it be forgot, That once there was a spot, For one brief shining moment that was known, As Camelot."?R.I.P. Mr. Bay and Missy Delta.

On a bluff overlooking that spot, the winged, finned, fleet-footed, and belly-crawling creatures etched simple marker on a rainbow arching across the Bay with the words of a lullaby that Mr. Bay sang to Miss Delta of an evening:??????????????????????????????????????????????

?

???????????????????????????????????????????????latte, pewter, lapis

???????????? the colors of the Bay

???????????????????????????????????????????????foretell her winds that sway

???????????????????????????????????????????????her breezes that die away

???????????????????????????????????????????????Ma Nature's moods perfuse the light

???????????????????????????????????????????????like creature's eyeshine stalk the night

???????????????????????????????????????????????lapis, pewter, latte?

? Richard A Nisbett, 2022