Eggnog and cookies, gift wrap and ribbons, lights and
ornaments… and shopping crowds everywhere.
Ads for the Clapper and Chia Pets have appeared on TV: they know
we’re desperate.
Eggnog and cookies, gift wrap and ribbons, lights and ornaments… and shopping crowds everywhere.
Ads for the Clapper and Chia Pets have appeared on TV: they know we’re desperate.
I love the holidays but I needed a break.
I decided to risk the treacherous 101-156 corridor and drive to the Monterey Bay Aquarium to clear my head.
In the past, gazing at the 3-story fronds in the kelp forest, then standing for a few minutes on the windy outdoor balcony, while gulls swoop and dip overhead, has always snapped me out of it.
This time of year, I feared bustling crowds of tourists and kids but decided to brave the throngs knowing I could always duck outside to the balcony and let the wind do its work.
To my happy surprise, it was just me and the fish.
I aimed first for the shark exhibit. I wanted to see the White Shark that has had so much publicity. She’s the first White Shark to be successfully maintained in captivity. According to a docent, she’s gaining weight and apparently thriving, all without eating her tank mates, mainly tuna, sardines and a gigantic sea turtle.
I craned my neck at the circling tuna for several minutes before I caught a glimpse of her, a fleeting sliver of light darting through the water. Interesting but not what really grabbed me.
What grabbed me was the companion exhibit, “Sharks: Myth and Mystery.” It shows how sharks have inspired cultural traditions in all parts of the world.
A video showed Hawaiian dancers depicting how the shark god, Kamohoalii, brought his sister, the fire goddess Pele, and her volcanoes to Hawaii.
To the Maya, sharks were sacred yet evil, and glyphs of shark images abound in ancient Maya temple carvings.
The Pacific Northwest exhibit featured ceremonial shark masks. Replicas were set up so that you could stand behind a mask and look at yourself in a full-length mirror through the eyeholes in the mask.
I looked, and looking back at me was the powerful face of a blue, fierce-toothed Haida shark atop the torso of a middle-aged lady in a tweed jacket. Suddenly I didn’t feel so tired.
In song, dance, carving, paintings and stitchery, legends of sharks celebrate clan ties, coming of age and myths of creation.
The cultural lessons were amplified with displays of live sharks, rays and skates from all parts of the world. The exhibit of the Cownose Ray featured a cave-like space you could crawl into, to look up through the water at the remarkable structure of the gills and mouth that give it its name, and watch them in action.
After seeing all this I was refreshed, and I still hadn’t made it to the balcony or the kelp forest.
I also had a lump in my throat. Such variety. So much beauty. I was choked up with wonder at all the riches in this world.
I got my dose of wind as I walked back to my car. The new moon was visible in the dark blue sky, the seagulls cried their cries and I felt at peace.
Photos and videos of the Shark exhibit, including a video of the Hawaiian dance, are available online at http://www.mbayaq.org/efc/sharks.asp.
Elizabeth Gage’s column runs weekly in the Free Lance.
