Kin Beneath the Skin

It was so fine and mild that the spousal unit and I went to the beach yesterday for a walk. The sky and air were splendid, but the end of our visit was sad as we happened upon a mostly decomposed seal carcass.

There was still some flesh, especially on the lower half of the body, but the upper half was nothing but greying bones in the sun. We like seals and this discovery was upsetting, but we were also struck by the appearance of the partially revealed skeleton. The ribcage was eerily human-looking, and taken as a whole (human looking upper body, fishy looking lower body), it looked like the body of a mermaid. It's no surprise that seals and other like creatures fueled stories of mermaids, selkies, and other half-human/half-marine beings.

True to form, the spousal unit made jokes about the Fiji Mermaid, and calling the police and saying, "C'mon out here quick! There's a dead mermaid on the beach!" But later begged me not to talk about it any further, saying it was too sad.

We're both of us are that mix of irreverence and tender-heartedness, it means we tend to not get along well with a lot of people. The tender-hearted get angry at the irreverence, and the irreverent types get mad at the tender-heartedness. But, we get along pretty well with each other.