Thanks to Them

It happens in a flash, an instant. Suddenly lives are changed for the better.

Millions of ordinary Americans, usually with little or no recognition or praise, offer extraordinary time to try to improve their world. But their path to good deeds often starts with halting, quirky steps: a debilitating illness and a prayer. A spanking in a youth center. The speech of a nun. A chance meeting at sea with dolphins.

No matter how they decide to do what they do, however, their efforts can by quietly moving: lonely seniors are no longer neglected; high-risk teen-agers get attention from a self-described former tough; crime victims receive some care and attention that the system never could give.

For all the labor, the hard work of all too many largely goes unsung. On a day of thanksgiving, it’s worth telling some of the tales of kindness.

Here are a few:

Patrick Wall

Wall, 43, is executive director, co-founder of Earth Alert! and produced a local Emmy-winning documentary on water pollution in Marina del Rey. He became an ardent environmentalist after encountering dolphins while in his sailboat off Belize in 1979. “Until then, I considered dolphins just another critter. But that day, they really made me stop and think. One swam to the stern of my boat and kept putting its head up and making these sounds. I pulled in my fishing line and there was a fish on the line.

“The next day, a group of four swam by. Suddenly, one broke away and came over toward me with a fish wiggling in its mouth. I just about freaked out. I had shivers. Here was this wild animal initiating a relationship with a human being. I thought, ‘My, God, it’s offering me the fish.’

“So I looked around for something to offer it. I tossed out a lemon and they played ball with it and then they appeared to eat it.

“I’d go swimming with them. . . . When I was around them, I had a sense that everything was OK. . . . I couldn’t believe that people were killing this kind of animal for food.

“If I hadn’t met the dolphins, I would have spent the rest of my life living happily on the Great Barrier Reef of Australia. They pointed me in the (right) direction. Once they opened the doors, I was aware enough to keep opening the other doors myself. They taught me there’s no way to escape.

“I still feel I’m helping the dolphins. They’re very placid, you know. They don’t fight for their lives like other animals do.

“Maybe they have a sense of afterlife.”