Yesterday, on Miami Beach near 15th Street, when I saw the yellow caution tapes, I thought a piece of dangerous metal had washed up; but no, it was a sea turtle nest. Human beings were the danger. We were warned to keep away.
The only thing I knew about sea turtles I learned from Tennessee Williams's "Suddenly Last Summer"--O, how literature can shape the mind. (There is a film version with Elizabeth Taylor, Montgomery Clift, and Katherine Hepburn). Hepburn plays Mrs. Venerable, who gives a terrifying speech about the death of most newly hatched sea turtles: their soft underbellies are torn to pieces by sea birds. This is still true. The female uses her hind flippers to dig a nest, and lays up to 200 eggs, which take 45 to 70 days to hatch. On their own, the hatchlings try to find the water, which in this case is only a few dozen feet away. Most are eaten. Yet the nest on Miami Beach amidst the sunbathers is a sign of their survival. There's no reason why I can't think of Tennessee Williams's Mrs. Venerable and her terrifying view and at the same time admire the perseverance of the female sea turtle who dug this nest.
(The photo of the swimming sea turtle is by Jeremiah Tolbert. You can see his fine work at: jeremiahtolbert.com/blog.)
