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| Turtle Crossing: Proceed With Caution |
Another bike ride into the wilderness, another amazing turtle encounter.
My dad used to tell a story similar to the one Stephen Hawking shares below, so I often think of it when I visit with turtles. It is funny that a symbol of Mother Earth makes me think about my father.
And my mother. And the mother we all share. Enjoy the turtle tale.
A well-known scientist (some say it was Bertrand Russell) once gave a public lecture on astronomy. He described how the earth orbits around the sun and how the sun, in turn, orbits around the center of a vast collection of stars called our galaxy.
At the end of the lecture, a little old lady at the back of the room got up and said: "What you have told us is rubbish. The world is really a flat plate supported on the back of a giant tortoise."
The scientist gave a superior smile before replying, "What is the tortoise standing on?"
"You're very clever, young man, very clever," said the old lady.
"But it's turtles all the way down!"
- A Brief History of Time, Ch. 1. Our Picture of the Universe
Ha ha! Love it! This is a timely post because just last week, I encountered a beautiful box turtle in my front yard under my oak tree. I was very surprised! I worried about his safety as there is a little boy next door who has no self control. I brought Mr. T to my backyard. He burrowed under some pine straw at the base of a tree and stayed there for a couple of days. Then he moved on to the yard next door and I haven't seen him since. I walk every morning at 5AM and encountered another box turtle at the end of someone's driveway. He was looking toward the road, so I carried him across to the other side. I think it's nesting/mating season. Also we had just had 3 days of rain that week, so maybe that had something to do with my double turtle sighting. lol Turtles are so awesome!
ReplyDeleteWhen I was a foreign student in China I would visit old temples and there were statues of turtles. I think this is connected with the lo river myth and the lo Shu square that was said to have originated on the back of a turtle.
ReplyDeletePeace,
Alex