Tuesday, November 29, 2011

On the not-so-lowly turtle

"Behold the turtle. He makes progress only when he sticks his neck out."
James Conant
I had a turtle once, long ago. She eventually outgrew every habitat we bought for her, and ultimately needed a ginorous aquarium. My old room had shag carpeting - blame my parents - with a bizarro blue/green pattern to it, and whenever she escaped, she'd disappear, chameleon-like. I'd have to lie carefully on the bed for fear of accidentally squishing her. Eventually, after feeling around the floor, I'd find her and return her. Until her next escape.

Long after she went to the great turtle riviera in the sky, I had an inspirational turtle experience in a faraway place. And to this day, these funny-looking, super-slow beings from a seemingly distant past still manage to fascinate me. I'm not so great at the neck-sticking-out thing, but I figure if a turtle can do it, I can, too.

Your turn: How do you explain the ongoing appeal of turtles?

4 comments:

Mark said...

Funny that you posted this today. While trimming the tree tonight, including my turtle ornaments, I asked my wife where my turtle collection is. She doesn't know. We once had a neat shadow box filled with various turtle figures I had collected (mostly as gifts) over the years. I never really had a pet turtle (aside from a box turtle I found in the woods and placed in a cardboard box for a few days), but always have had an affinity for them. Also, sorry your recent comment on my blog got filtered. I don't know why it had become so overzealous lately.

Kalei's Best Friend said...

Turtles are one of my favorites... I love the grace of a sea turtle in the water.... "Slow and steady wins the race".... how true that is in life...Rushing to achieve can bring alot of mistakes...I too collect turtles... My ex-bf gave me a gold turtle charm that I have on a necklace .. I use to wear it alot now its friends w/my jewelry drawer... I collect all kinds- from small hand sewn to a small green porcelin one that a friend in the UK sent to me.. She found it in a small china shop just sitting there. Turtles are cool...

21 Wits said...

Sticking our neck out sometimes is really good for us... Thanks for bringing back this long time memory for me...I never was allowed to have a turtle, but my best friend did...and yes, so many times we were down on the ground in search of actually the many turtles she owned...she was not so lucky in keeping any of them for very long...well they had a dog and a cat and two big BROTHER'S !Need I say more!

Alexia said...

This sent me off to follow the link to read your saving the turtle post...
Thank you - I had to stop the other day because a mother duck and her trail of 5 ducklings was heading across the road. The car behind me tooted in exasperation.
Most animals are better people than lots of people.

Turtles are very cool.