May, 2019
Florida is full of water. It's essentially a well developed, very attractive swamp. Even deep inland, lakes, ponds, rivers, rills and bayous abound. You can't swing a dead gator without it splashing into something.
And speaking of gators, I've heard the rumor, as you may have, that if you find a body of water bigger than a bathtub anywhere in Florida, it'll probably have an alligator in it. Hyperbole? Maybe. Based in truth? Probably. But I've been here for a little more than three weeks and, I haven't seen a single one (although there's a sign on a pond at the RV park where I'm staying that reads, "Do not feed the gators" which I think is a joke, but I'm not totally sure). That's not a complaint. Among other things, if we did cross paths with one, my dog would probably want to play with it. But enough about gators, this is a turtle story.
Walking past an office building the other day, I stopped to look at a typical piece of Florida landscape: a small pond. Movement in the green-brown water caught my eye as a turtle, just under the surface, pushed off from the bank and disappeared into the murk. Let me just say that this was no small turtle. He would have made a batch of turtle soup that could feed a family of Honduran refugees for a week. I don't know much about them — turtles, that is, not Hondurans — but I believe they're very slow growers and, if so, this guy might have been about my age. He probably had no natural enemies in his little land-locked pond and it could even have been his life long home. It might be tiny, dark and stinky, but it was a place where a self respecting turtle might grow old in peace and safety.
On the other hand, one might ponder (sorry!) whether a life spent in the confines of such a limited world — the same sights, the same experiences, day after day — is indeed a life worth living. Safe? Yes. Comfortable? Sure. Interesting? Mind expanding? Soul-filling? I wouldn't think so. And in fact I don't think so, which is why I left my little pond to see what's over the next bank.
But that's OK. We are, all of us, entitled to our own opinions and the old guy and I can agree to disagree.
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