a dream among the sharks

shark week is coming to a close on the discovery channel and i am deeply saddened by this. i've learned very much from this summer's edition and was blown away by some of the stories told by survivors. one story in particular got my attention. in 2002, an 8 year old boy's arm was taken off by a six and a half foot bull shark off the coast of the florida panhandle. as he was being shuttled to the hospital, the boy's uncle wrestled the shark to shore, shot it in the head, and shoved his arm down its throat and retrieved his nephew's limb. the uncle surrounded the arm in ice and sped to the hospital the boy was at. after twelve hours of surgery, his arm was successfully reattached and he's been using it ever since. good for you, jim morris. bad day for the bull shark, though.

it's things like this that amaze me. our bodies are capable of extraordinary actions, like being torn apart as if you were a rag doll and then literally being sewn back together- and having it work. it makes me wonder then, why so many people decide to play russian roulette with their health. why take chances so grave when you also have a chance of getting into real danger and then your body lacks the resources and strength it may need to recover? it simply makes no sense to me. some people say "live in the moment" or "losen up" and sometimes i hear "i could die tomorrow, so what?" it aggravates me to a high degree. what about the people who do take care of themselves and avoid the obvious things that are detrimental to their health and then end up getting bent over and fucked in the ass with some sort of ill fated disease or circumstance? would you tell them to "live in the moment" and "loosen up?" i think not. it's painfully ironic how things work out sometimes.

anyway, as i said, i learned a lot about sharks this week. some tidbits of information i've retained is that a whale shark's mouth can grow up to six and a half feet wide and a bull shark has the most testosterone flowing through them than any other creature on the planet. that is why they are always so grumpy and aggressive. tiger sharks are covered in little teeth called denticles. yes, that's right- their skin is a bunch of teeth, as if they didn't have enough teeth in their mouths. now, if i am ever in a situation where i am toe to fin with a shark, i think i know what to do thanks to shark week. i should punch its eyeballs and nose and shove my hands in its gills. i have to say though, i doubt it would work. i mean, if a shark wants to eat me i'm pretty sure it's going to make a meal of my appendages and torso. at least i'd serve some sort of purpose then- shark food.