I miss being a kid. I don't miss the inability to travel large distances, the violin lessons I went to dutifully, the mindless homework we had to complete, the insecurities and not having money, but I do miss the joy of learning about new things, maybe the blissful ignorance of just being a kid, and the class field trips. Man, field trips felt like such a treat back when we were in elementary school and junior high, like we were going on a journey to a distant land, anywhere but another mundane day stuck inside the prison/classroom. Now that I'm an adult, I can choose to go anywhere really at any time if I really wanted to, so it doesnt' feel that special when I go anywhere because it's so readily available. As a kid, going to the zoo or the aquarium or the science museum or the grand-daddy of them all, the 8th grade field trip, felt like given a real gift I remember in 5th grade I went to an Outdoor Ed trip with the class where we slept in bunk beds overnight for 2 days; I liked it so much I cried when I came back because I realized I wasn't going back there any more. (And still haven't). The Shedd Aquarium was THE place to go to for all Chicago-area schools, and Cass Junior High was no exception: I remember back in the day dolphin shows were the main attraction (whereas nowadays they're very limited due to cruelty to animals), and we were given assignments to identify different types of fish. I loved it, as kids should. Even before Finding Nemo and Free Willy and various versions of Little Mermaid movies, I've liked learning about sea life. It's not just the sharks, the whales, the dolphins, the big-ticket items, I like the small school of fish, sea anemones, mysterius moray eels, etc. MJ and I went to half-off night at the aquarium this past Friday night (same night as New Year!) and enjoyed interacting with my new favorite sea creature: the jellyfish.
Jellyfish belong to a family called Medusoza, so it's kind of hard to say whether they're mammals or fish, or what, they're more "cnidarians." What they look like to me, though, are just cool-looking umbrellas in the water. As soon as MJ and I entered, the first exhibit we entered led us to a pool of swimming moon jellyfish, which all looked similar in shape but different in sizes, like seeing beach parasols on the beach floaing around. They're one of the few sea creatures we're allowed to touch, and also aren't going to sting us. Watching some jellyfish just float around makes me think, in the next life will I just become a jellyfish? If life just converts to other life, will my particles just dissolve into air, or will I come bck in another life form? If so these jellyfish would not be bad way to live, although they only live 1-3 years. All that wiggling around takes a lot out of them, apparently. A cool feature for certain types of jellyfish, as we learned in the "Jellyfish Invasion" exhibit, is bioluminescence: living things giving off light especially underwater. Seeing it through a pane of glass makes it seem like a lava lamp. And hundreds of jellyfish in noe container intermittently giving off ligtht is like seeing lanterns released into the air at a Lunar New Year festival (Happy Lunar New Year by the way), except just continuously doing so, without stopping.
MJ is not a big zoo or aquarium person, and I had to practically drag her there, but I do think aquariums are a good date night thing to do; there's something soothing about walking around to take your brain off of the myriad things going off in the world, not just the monotnous issues going on at work that occupy my brain space half the time, but also election year worries, Super Bowl, storms in California, Israel still bombing Gaza constantly, Ukraine and Russia incing ever closer to stalemate, AI taking over everyone's jobs, the new generation being hooked on social media, the government pumping trillions of dollars into the economy and never paying it back, it's enough to worry you sick, but spend just an hour at an aquarium to calm you down, and it really works: it's like you doing reverse-Ariel in Little Mermaid: going underwater seeing treasures untold, gadgets and gizmos of plenty, and looking at all the thing-a-bobs and being fascinated by all the fish swimming around on those--- what do you call them?--- oh, fins. I just wish I could be---- Part of that world.
Peaceful- several couples just ended their night sitting in the old dolphin theater seats (no longer doing dolphin shows), but still 3 dolphins wading around in the pools and enjoying swimming through the pool, wishing to just stay in the world of sea creatures and the totally different for a little longer before going back into the real world.
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