An Embarrassing Octopus.
A month ago, if you had asked me what an Argonaut was, I may have suggested some sort of mechanical pool cleaner. I certainly wouldn’t have been too interested in finding out either, but now I’m glad I did. The Argonaut is a enigmatic, free-swimming octopus more commonly known as a Paper Nautilus. This creature has amazed, amused, and frankly, embarrassed many of it’s researchers.
Even if marine biology doesn’t float your boat, keep reading, because there’s much to learn from the incredible Argonaut. It was long believed that they appropriated their spiral shell from some unfortunate creature in order to float away on it - raising up their tentacles to catch the wind. This was the widely accepted theory from Aristotle to just a few years back, even though it was never actually observed. Bizarre isn’t it? It’s not the only thing we’ve got wrong either.
Researchers, studying the Paper Nautilus in laboratory aquariums watched the poor creatures trying to dive down in the shallow tanks, only to float back to the surface. They mistakenly concluded that the simpletons got “stranded” on the surface by air, accidentally trapped in their shells. It was only in 2010 when Drs Julian Finn and Mark Norman decided to take the creatures for a swim in the ocean that the the purpose of God’s marvellous design was discovered.
Apparently the shell is more like a custom-built submarine than a stolen yacht. The female builds it with calcite secretions from her two specially designed arms, and uses it to scoop air from the surface before jetting down to a sufficient depth where the water pressure compresses the air and renders her neutrally buoyant. Neutral buoyancy is the point underwater at which an object neither floats up nor sinks down. It’s at this depth where Argonauts can propel themselves through the water, at remarkable speed, without wasting energy on staying afloat. They can’t do this without their shells, the air trapped inside them or the required depth of water to compress it.
It took us two thousand years to discover this, can we apply it to our lives? One thing is that we, like the Argonaut, need depth to operate at our best. We need an environment of spiritual depth at home, so that we don’t waste our lives bobbing up and down in shallow pursuits. Every home has it’s traditions, family rituals and celebrations. This month, let’s consider and discuss if ours are Godly, and if they encourage a deeper relationship with God and each other. Another thing we can learn from the Argonaut is that just because everybody thinks something is right, doesn’t mean it is.
This Argonaut Image by Bernd Hofmann at de.wikipedia / CC BY-SA (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)