From Hart to Hearts
A Message from Rev Linda Hart for the month of March 2009
With all the talk in the last month about evolution and all this about lower and higher animals, I have to say, I’m thankful for Otto the octopus.
Now, I don’t know about you, but octopuses (octopi?) haven’t been among my favourite sorts of animals. Nothing furry and cuddly about them! No adorable pictures passed around from hand to hand to exhibit their loveable-ness. And there are all those horrific sea adventures in which tentacles wind their wicked way over the bow of the ship and pull it down into the depths of the ocean. And what about the ink? I have to admit it’s a clever way to escape one’s enemies, but it isn’t really very endearing, is it?
So I was surprised to find that I like Otto the octopus quite well. In fact, it’s probably right to say that he has changed my views on creatures of his kind entirely.
I’ve not met him face to face (can you say that about an octopus?), but only read about him in articles I’ve found online. Otto, you see, was a troublemaker, and enough of one that he got news coverage.
It started when the aquarium in which he lived had trouble with a spot light getting shorted out. One time it could have been any number of causes, but three nights in a row left the electricians baffled. So the staff of the aquarium agreed to sleep in the room overnight to find out what it was that was causing the trouble. That’s how he got caught. Otto was swinging himself up over the edge of the tank in which he was living and squirting water onto the spotlight, shorting it out and shutting down the power in the whole room. The action endangered his fellow creatures, and so it had to be stopped.
The director of the aquarium was the one who caught him. He commented upon the whole situation: ‘We've put the light a bit higher now so he shouldn't be able to reach it. But Otto is constantly craving for attention and always comes up with new stunts so we have realised we will have to keep more careful eye on him - and also perhaps give him a few more toys to play with.’
This is what enchanted me about Otto: his is no mere bit of fishy flesh floating about in his tank. The light was bothering him and he was bored, and he discovered how he could change his world by a rather simple act. That he lifted himself out of the water, that through some sort of trial and error he discovered that he could extinguish the annoying light makes me cheer. Bravo, Otto! I have no doubt that he’ll discover a way to knock it out again.
I was totally taken by him when I read even more: ‘Once we saw him juggling the hermit crabs in his tank, another time he threw stones against the glass damaging it,’ the director said further. ‘And from time to time he completely re-arranges his tank to make it suit his own taste better - much to the distress of his fellow tank inhabitants.’
Sometimes the world offers us a chance to see ourselves in the eyes (tentacles?) of others, see the spirit and life of the world expressed in odd places and odd ways. Otto offers me that opportunity. I see in him a kindred spirit of sorts, and am reminded that we are all more alike than different.
So here’s a cheer and a toast to Otto the octopus, my friend. (And here’s hoping when we do meet, he’ll teach me to juggle!)
Linda