finding admiration in the object of irrational fears

I have an irrational fear. Probably several, but the one that I thought about today was my fear of sharks. Yes, I realize that I have a greater chance of dying by being struck by lightening than being attacked by a shark. I realize that given the whole world with its huge population, on average there are about 100 shark attacks.

But what can I say? I was a Jaws fan growing up. For some inexplicable reason.

And that is why I never learned to surf those years in California, even though I really, really wanted to. So that's my irrational fear.

I bring this up because despite my irrational fear, sharks are, for lack of a better word, cool. Very, very cool.

I think they're fascinating. And this morning I came across this article about whale sharks (which it should be pointed out do not attack humans), that had this to say: "Monster sharks can execute underwater 'flight' moves that would have put some fighter pilots to shame...."

The sharks are normally placid when close to the surface, but when they dive into depths not easily reached by us, they can be quite...oh let's say acrobatic.

There was another link to an article on a "fossil" shark captured on film that was oddly in shallow enough waters to be seen a caught (and if you look at the picture...it does kind of look like a fossil). This article, along with the media buzz on the colossal squid, are just one of several reminders that there is so much we don't know, about the depths of the ocean and even the specimens we do have access to. Again, looking at the whale shark and beginning to find out all this information that was unexpected.

There's so much we don't know, in all of our thousands of years of observations and study. And I, for one, look forward to the next discovery.