I apologise for the following. It’s very arrogant and human centred. I apologise to jellyfish everywhere, to their designer and to people who are fond of jellyfish. Jellyfish are brilliant. They do a great job of being jellyfish, this is actually about people - who don’t.
People don’t care about jellyfish very much. No one has ever been successfully prosecuted for cruelty to jellyfish. No one ever sponsors a jellyfish and no one organises rescue missions for beached jellyfish. Why?
- Jellyfish aren’t tasty. A few things, like turtles, do eat them but, by filling the seas with jellyfish look-alike carrier bags we’re tricking turtles into choking to death. So they won’t be a threat soon. Jellyfish aren’t worth eating. They’re marine celery with too much salt.
- Jellyfish aren’t sexy. There probably is a site for enthusiasts, but I’ve never stumbled across it. I’ve had strange dreams about many things but in all of them I really can’t remember ever getting involved with a jellyfish. In a recent poll, nine out of ten women said they would rather have a meaningful relationship with an artist than with a jellyfish. Not a problem for them because they can reproduce asexually (jellyfish).
- Jellyfish aren’t very useful. Budget breast enhancement, possibly? Can’t think of anything else
- Jellyfish are inoffensive. Salmon make us jealous. We can’t migrate as butchly as them. They’re a challenge to our virility. So are sharks, foxes and slugs. So we kill them. It makes us feel a bit better. How many people hunt jellyfish at the weekend? It’s just not necessary.
- Jellyfish aren’t that dangerous. Unless you’re a small crustacean. The ones that injure us tend to be the ones we clumsily swim into or put down our shorts for subsequent humour purposes, and then we’ll only be injured by few species.
- Jellyfish drift. They can move a bit; they’re all right at going up or down but mostly they don’t have a choice. They don’t complain, they’re used to it. They’re good at putting up with all sorts of stuff.
- Jellyfish aren’t very interesting. Jellyfish aren’t even fish. Who’s learnt the word “Schyphozoan” so they can address one correctly? Jellyfish are so uninteresting and uninspiring that no one can be bothered to learn their real name.
- Jellyfish aren’t very noticeable. They’re almost see-though. They don’t leap gracefully, slice menacingly or do much that would draw people’s attention.
 If many of the above apply to you, like the jellyfish you probably won’t have many enemies, you won’t get into trouble very often, you’ll be tolerated and women will be friends with you. But, you’ll be like a jellyfish and that’s the problem - we’re not supposed to be.
If you don’t want to offend anyone, keep your feelings, thoughts and desires to yourself. Drift with the current. Never confront anyone. Ignore your own passions. Don’t do anything that makes you feel alive. Spend all your free time with other people - this stops you developing ideas of your own. If you feel strongly about anything there are drugs from alcohol to prescribed sedatives to prevent you from becoming a nuisance. Keep focused on other people. If there aren’t any real people around there’s always a soap or a “reality” show to keep you from getting to know yourself. If you want a quiet life, if you don’t want enemies, frustration, disappointment and danger, be like the jellyfish.
If, on the other hand, you don’t mind some mess; if you think you’ve got the potatoes for it; have a listen to yourself. Take a look inside. What do you want? What’s important to you? What job would you really like? What makes you feel alive? What tentacles you off? What do you care about? Dig a bit.
Some of our desires are not that healthy, for us, for anyone. I might desire the woman next door but if I’m not discerning and follow through with my desire then her husband and her venereal disease might make it all a poor outing for me. But some of our desires are good, God-given even. Some of our desires are the noises our souls make to try to show us our unique potential, so to ignore them – to behave as everyone else would like us to - might ensure we keep out of trouble but it will also mean we never become the fulfilled, world changing bloke we might have been. Like forever driving your Aston @ below 2000 rpm. It’s much safer, you won’t disturb the neighbours and people won’t hate you as much but, well, you may as well buy a motorhome. Our job is to try to listen to our desires, to catch a glimpse of our unique potential and become.
Imagine if Martin Luther King had said “I have a dream… but you must be joking if you think I’m going to tell anyone about it - no one will understand me, someone might get offended and if people do take some notice someone will get hurt. So I’m going to shut up and we’re all going to have a nice picnic.” He’d probably have lived happily into retirement. But he chose to allow his desires to show him possibilities and he dared to believe them. He shared these publicly and became hated. But he also became a leader, an inspiration.
Beware who you talk to about your desires. If you tell jellyfish about them you’ll make them nervous and you’ll get laughed at. Find someone else who is daring to take notice of the stuff inside them and you might just find a friend. Find someone who has become expert at this and you’ll have yourself a mentor.
Neglect our desires and we’ll never know let alone realise our potential. Pay attention to them and become their master and we might just live, really live.
Further study: Invertebrate Zoology, Barnes, Saunders College Publishing; Wild at Heart, John Eldredge, Thomas Nelson; Shattering Glass, film directed by Billy Ray, Lion’s Gate Films;
Back to Articles
| |
Registered on the 