How great to find a starfish on the beach although it seems this one is missing one of his feet.....I guess life is tough in the ocean too. I thought to myself......what a fabulous addition to my rather meager Texas sea shell collection. Alright....it's really not a shell, but let's not get picky.
Alas! Those little pieces that look like millipede legs were moving around and tickling my palms. The creature was still alive. I put him in the water but the surf kept washing him back. I tried to convince myself that he would never survive and I could take him home with me. Then I remembered one time, a long time ago (back when we thought that there would be enough sea shells to last forever although evidently it is still lawful to collect live shells in Texas), I had gathered a dozen sea stars on a beach in South Carolina and put them in the glove compartment of my car. They remained there on the trip home when we stopped at a motel overnight. And by the next morning, their slow decaying had filled the car with a most unpleasant scent, which lingered long after the the rest of the vacation had been forgotten.
So I splashed out into deeper water and flung my treasure out to sea. How marvelous to see him in his natural habitat under the water and seemingly content on the ocean floor. Maybe he would have eventually perished up on the beach, but I wasn't going to be a party to his demise. For my concern, I was rewarded with a rare glimpse into his world...........which I enjoyed much more than he must have enjoyed his glimpse into mine.
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