Coming to our senses

Confession: This past spring, I caused the demise of two purple jellyfish on two consecutive days. I didn’t kill them myself, but I did take this photo of one after someone else pulled it out of the water with a stick.

Two days in a row, I saw jellyfish and warned a nearby swimmer. I was trying to find out whether they were dangerous, but I didn’t have enough of the language to get into nuance. (In fact, I said the word medusa as an experiment—just learned that it was the Spanish word for jellyfish a couple summers ago, so I thought I’d try it out in Montenegro. It worked.) Two days in a row, I said medusa to another swimmer and pointed to the little purple blob; both times, the other swimmer dragged it out of the water with a stick and continued swimming while I cowered on the beach.

Substack birthday bonus! Here’s another free piece:

A weightless dance