Ocean Wonders

Growing up in New England, I absolutely adored visiting the New England Aquarium in Boston, MA, as a child. My parents would take me on the T or we would go on field trips to see all of the ocean life & exhibits, which instilled in me a great love for all things sea-related. A love that became cemented in my imagination particularly during our years in Rockport. I loved playing in tidal pools, searching the beaches for seashells & horseshoe crab carapaces, & reading or looking at the glossy pictures in books that detailed ocean life. This has stayed with me for my whole life. I even took Oceanography as my science with lab course in my undergraduate study, not realizing that we’d spend more time on bathymetry & pH levels or sediment composition than the living creatures themselves. But I didn’t mind that, so long as I was able to study & write about things I loved, like bioluminescence or tsunamis.

And I think every 80s kid from the Northeast remembers that New England Aquarium commercial where the kid says in a sing-song fashion, “I can walk like a pennnnn-guin.”

So, dear reader, you can imagine the fun of bringing the little to our little bit of ocean in the Salt Lake City area–the Loveland Living Planet Aquarium. The little, as you may know from other blog posts, absolutely adores Finding NemoFinding Dory, & Moana. His eyes grow big with wonder as he watches the pengiuns & otters glide under the water with such ease & grace. For introverts like me, watching fish, jellyfish, & pretty much any sea creature peacefully swimming provides a calming effect. It’s as if we lose ourselves in that magical joy. The colors of the sea provide a soothing effect as well–which is why I imagine “spa” colors fall into that spectrum of shades & hues of blues, greens, & aquas.

Sharing these wonders & all their beauty with the little has become such a gift. He’s at an age now when his personality comes through & I suddenly realize he’s a person with his own independent thoughts. It’s such a gift to experience all of the magic of things I loved in childhood, once again, through his eyes, & it all means so much more to me. Like Mr. Darling who looks up at the Jolly Roger only to remark, “You know, I have the strangest feeling that I’ve seen that ship before, a long time ago, when I was very young.”

How strange that we can experience our past while remaining in the present, but in an even more complex, enriched way–like multiple layers of consciousness in a palimpsest of being.

Perhaps that’s why I became fascinated by stories about the mysteries of the ocean as a child? Who can forget Kirk Douglas’ striped shirt & the infamous, elusive giant squid–a sort of leviathan of the deep seas? Or Gregory Peck chasing the white whale in Moby Dick? Jonah & the Whale, Pinocchio, & pirate novels by Stevenson populated my mind with images of the ocean fantastic. That might be why I love Pacific Rim & the idea of kaiju rising up from the deepest deep, like the Marianas Trench, revealing a secret frontier yet to be explored. Maybe that’s why I loved Splash & Aquaman & the idea of a sunken Atlantis, waiting to be discovered once again.

And so it’s a pleasant escape to revisit these long-loved images & experiences in my memory & present mind, sparked by a visit to watch graceful swimming & observe the magic hidden beneath the water’s surface. And for this New Englander transplant to Utah, it’s a comfort for me to know that the ocean isn’t so far away & that I can visit the aquarium anytime (yearly passes, of course), whenever I feel that need to share my love for tidal pools & seahorses & jellyfish with the little. More than that, we can also now access an additional number of national state parks (6 major ones in driving distance) for more adventure & exploration, featuring cowboy country & prairies & the Old West into the mix.

So this place is not unlike Never Land itself, where the lore of places excites the child’s imagination. Wonders upon wonders await in the ocean deep, & how wonderful to still be able to access those treasures here in Utah in aquarium form.

5 thoughts on “Ocean Wonders

  1. I can escape in things like this and find it so calming.
    I can watch especially sea lions, or otters for hours swimming.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *