[lit-ideas] Sting Rays
- From: "Lawrence Helm" <lawrencehelm@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 4 Sep 2006 21:05:05 -0700
Once upon I time I arrived at one of my favorite free-diving areas, dove
down to find a large sting ray swimming in it. I didn't want to dive after
fish while he was there so I tried to chase him out. I dived and thrust my
spear gun at him. He darted away but came back to stare at me. He had a
pretty good wing-span, maybe six feet or so. I may have considered shooting
him, but didn't know what to aim at and could imagine him thrashing around
at the end of my spear and didn't like the idea. So I made another attempt
to chase him out and he just hung there in the water challenging me. I gave
up and swam elsewhere.
A week or so later I was in a different diving area and told an old
free-diver about the encounter with the sting ray. He laughed and took off
his shirt. His chest and back were severely scarred. He said, "Here's what
happens when you spear a sing-ray and won't let go of your gun."
Today I learned that it could have been a lot worse.
Lawrence
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