Recently I took my children to Sea Life Minnesota Aquarium
at the Mall of America. As we walked
through, touching starfish and sea anemones, watching sharks get fed, I noted
the difference in each animal’s ability or approach to aquatic life. The rays, gosh, they just glide through the
water with barely a flick of their fins.
It’s weird to even call them fins because they don’t look like what I
think of as fins, I mean, sharks – now they have fins. Or sunfish that I take off fishing lines in
the summer, those are fins – I’ve felt the business side of them before. But rays are so smooth and their fins are
shaped differently than any other sea creature.
They're just, rays, I guess, but they aren’t what I’d call typical fins. They’re different. Even watching them eat was different from the
others. They could sort of trap food
between themselves and the glass of the tunnel we were in and, without fingers
or arms or even moving their mouths to the food, they were able to wiggle
around and quick as a wink, scarf up their squid delicacy.
One of the girls was watching the sawfish trying to beat out
a turtle, maneuvering in some pretty tight corners, and she commented that it
must be difficult to learn to get around with that nose. It’s so huge, she thought, it must bump into
things a lot at first, learning to exist.
I wondered about
that. Maybe it’s like going from driving
a Honda Civic to driving a station wagon or a Suburban. That takes some getting used to, but if
that’s how sawfish are when they are young, do you think they have to learn to be
how they are? Wouldn’t they just
BE? Similar to, does a fish realize that
it’s in water? Or does that realization
only happen once they are out of water?
What is so close, what is reality for so long, is not thought of by the
person or fish as odd or weird, is it?
Not until it’s compared to others? Until they see a difference.
I’m saying water to a fish is like my thought patterns to myself. It’s hard to gain perspective when they are
so close to me. It’s not until I learn
from other people what their thought processes/behaviors are that I’m able to see mine as
being uniquely my own. It's in that moment that I am given the chance to accept who I am in the world.
After our wandering through the ocean tunnel of this underwater
world was coming to a close, I again looked at the differences of these
creatures that all live their life in water.
Similar yet different. I
contemplated whether or not there was rivalry in the water. What if there was competition, cliques in sea
life? The eels lamenting over how long
they are compared to the turtles. Those
interesting fish with the bump on their forehead- are they ever self-conscious
about it? What if, after being told that bump-free foreheads are desirable, they were offered a
no-bump cream to remove the unsightly lump, would they take it? If eels could be rid of that creepy green
wrinkled skin, would they change how they look?
Perhaps becoming more vibrant colors like, say, a clown fish. Maybe the sea turtles are snobby and look
down on the mere painted turtles. Is
there a possibility of marine bullying?
Entertaining these thoughts and how ridiculous it seems for
these trivial matters to plague the animal kingdom, I’m curious how it happens
so easily for humans. To feel inferior
because of someone else’s more shapely or lean body, financial situation,
occupation, sexual orientation, or the kind of car they drive seems a little
foolish with this awareness.
Wouldn’t
it be nice if all beings would be secure in the knowledge that our life is
valid and perfect no matter where it lands on the line of continuum? That, no matter how I live my life and the
choices I make, there is no need to justify my existence. That I don’t need recognition from anyone
else to validate my right to be alive and exist as an individual. That by having been created- being here, in
this space, at this time- is all the substantiation that has ever been
needed. That ever will be needed. It’s no longer negotiable.
What would the world look like if I were able to see others
as different and not feel threatened by that difference but embrace it? Understanding that “them” being who they are
makes me who I am? Ahhh…the ability to embrace such beauty. Such perfection.
