Somedays should simply be designated “happy facts” days. No politics or religion. Nothing controversial. Just simple, happy facts. The watery kind.
By now, most of us have heard that sea otters hold hands while they sleep. They do this so that they don’t drift apart. But what they really love, is to sleep in large groups. Researchers have seen concentrations of over 1,000 otters floating together. And, better than holding hands, to keep from drifting away from each other, they will wrap themselves up in seaweed. They form a big “raft” of themselves. Hopefully, sea otters do not snore.
Since we are in the sea with our happy facts, how about dolphins. There is so much to love about them. But one thing, they give each other specific names. Not like Bob, or Shirley. They make certain sounds to each other to represent each dolphin. This reminds me of the scene from Splash, with Tom Hanks, when he asks Daryl Hannah her name.
Another happy creature on our planet is the penguin. I don’t know how anyone could look at a penguin and not smile. There are 18 different species of them, each differing widely. The Gentoo penguins propose with a pebble. The boy offers a pebble, that he picked out on his very own, to a girl penguin that he is absolutely crazy for. If the girl penguin accepts the proposal, she uses the pebble as the basis for their nest. Overheard at a penguin party: “OMG Betty. Did you see the size of that rock?”
Oh. You got to have friends. Bette Midler sang about having friends. And sperm whales do. In fact, they have best friends. They also have very good memories, and as such, they never forget their best friends. Ever. Not even if they don’t see them for a while. But here is the thing about sperm whales and I would be willing to bet big money on this one. I am suggesting that sperm whales don’t call themselves sperm whales, especially the females. Sperm whales are named after the spermaceti. That is the waxy substance that was used in oil lamps and candles, which is found on their heads. From this day forward, I shall refer to them as waxhead whales. I hope your memories are good, so you will know what I am talking about if they should ever come up in future articles.
Finally. The majority of life on Earth is aquatic. So much of the Earth’s surface is underwater. That would be 70 percent of the earth’s surface. It should come as no surprise then, when I tell you that marine species outnumber those on land. By a whole lot. It is an incredible 94 percent of the Earth’s living species that exist within the oceans. Think about the immensity of this. Then, think about the fact that man has explored less than five percent of Earth’s oceans.
I would say we are making a lot of suppositions where the oceans are concerned.
Once again, we are reminded of how much we do not know. The things we have not seen, and maybe we never will. This also reminds me that for everything we see, or think we know, they are leagues beneath that are unknown. Histories, secrets, facts, questions. This is true for all of life and everything we touch on any given day. Our lives are deep. And far, and wide. Today, I hope I can rejoice with all the goodness that is unknown to me.
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“It’s amazing what you can see when you just sit quietly and look.”
― Jacqueline Kelly
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There is more going on beneath the surface than we think, and more going on in little, finite moments of time than we would guess.
— Malcolm Gladwell
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There are no secrets in life; just hidden truths that lie beneath the surface.
— Michael C. Hall
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