One Last Turtle

One day this past week I stopped by our former home on the Zuck Homestead to pick up some things to move and check the mail; as I was driving down the lane back to North Spring Run Road I saw a terrapin crossing the lane; I stopped, got out, picked him (or her – I’m uneducated on these things) up and carried him to the grass on the other side of the gravel lane. “Now you take care of yourself and don’t cross this lane again.” 

There was poetry in that turtle encounter for me. I’ve always loved turtles, especially terrapins, ground turtles. Being from Maryland I’ve never though twice about the University of Maryland’s mascot being a terrapin – I grew up with terrapins and have always been fascinated by them. There are plenty of schools that have tigers or lions or Trojans as mascots, but terrapins?

Patrick always had a thing for turtles, water or land, it made no difference. Alice also has an affinity for turtles. While I do not share the Revere family’s affinity for snakes, we do have common ground when it comes to turtles. We have often shared our turtle rescue experiences – some probably foolhardy considering the traffic involved – we aren’t likely to pick up hitchhikers but we are prone to stop and rescue turtles.

The turtle strikes me as being thoughtful, minding his own business (unless enjoying the fruits of my garden), and generally going through life without fanfare and without demands on others. He is unobtrusive and has yet to succumb to materialism in that unlike cars on a NASCAR track, he will not sell his shell to Madison Avenue. I imagine that a turtle and one of Tolkien’s Ents would probably enjoy each other’s company. 

Well, here’s to turtles, the Reveres, and to friendship – to affinity with our Father’s creation, to stewardship however we are able to express it; here’s to a brief moment of poetry on a gravel lane.