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 The jellyfish is any member of related free-swimming,mostly marine coelenterates, with a body made up largely of jelly-like substance and shaped like an umbrella; it has long hanging tentacles with stinging cells attached. Jelly
fish can be found just about anyday swimming in the sea;
unless, of course, they're washed ashore-then, of course
other things happen that we don't want to talk about-but we
have to . . . .A samurai was a member of a military class in feudal Japan, consisting of retainers and daimyos-originally. He was bound by obligations and a strict code of behavior-sort of like the honor system in the mythical code of the old west (in theory infallible; in practice . . . .probably hit or miss). The samurai, at his best, came to symbolize loyalty, courage, and honor. He bore two swords-one for cutting outward, to act upon the world of threat; one for cutting inward, upon the world of self or flesh, or soul-if he failed in his missions. |
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Once upon a time there was a samurai; it took him a
long time to express himself as a samurai, at least at a
level of knowing that even he would understand. Something
outside himself called him into action-the need to protect;
before that need was revealed to him, he, like the
gunslingers of "B" movies only expressed his protecting
instincts on occasion. A cousin or a brother would need
assistance, maybe his mother, and he'd act. Born a samurai;
always a samurai-even unknowingly. The samurai acted for those outside himself and to please those outside himself-not in an obsequious way--except in the case of his mother-at times. He was truly, really a loyal and rooted person. |
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One day the samurai was walking on the beach
resplendent in his magnificent robes--sort of like the suit
of lights bullfighters wear--embroidered and heavy and
full of ceremony and colorful. He came upon a mass of
jellyfish, beached, helpless out of their element, which
was water. There exposed to the drying sun and the hard
ground . . . .they could not swim freely, and the could not
sting to protect themselves or to feed. Their bodies
without support of bone or muscle would soon dry up. The
samurai, at first, was disgusted by the display of jelly
that impeded his way; it was awfully careful stepping, and
he didn't want to get stuck. Then after stepping and cursing for awhile and getting jelly on his shoes, he paused and stood and looked. He was on his way to board a small boat, a craft that was to carry him to some important mission in his world. He paused, and he looked down and looked directly into the eye of a displaced jellyfish, and he felt sadness and pity because this great glob of jelly who could no longer swim freely in sea. And he said to it, "Oh, jellyfish, you who would seem spineless, and without courage, I pity you, for you are a goner; you are finished." And the samurai realized at that very moment that he too could arrive perhaps at just such a juncture in his own life--though he did possess the double swords and was supposed to finish himself before such a helplessness set upon him. |
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He pondered these matters as he stepped into the boat
that was to carry him his next mission, the boat with all
its colors--its pendants flying. Half way across the little
inlet of sea, the craft capsized, and the samurai went
down, his heavy robes carrying his body weight downward.
But, he took off his sword to kill,the larger sword, the
one that made him a person of action, and he let it sink.
So, he bobbed to the surface and clung to the hull of his
little boat-the colors were getting wet and separating from
their matchstick masts and floating away. He held on for
dear life. But then, again, weighted down by heavy robes,
he began to sink. He could see the jellyfish swimming in
schools freely about him. And, then they closed in to look
. . . .one can not say whether they thought him and odd
curiosity or a meal. But,they seemed only to be looking,
curiously. It was, indeed a strange situation. And, the
samurai was not an usual meal for a jellyfish. So as the Samurai went down, he became confused by the mass of huge umbrella-like floating, ghostly, transparent objects that reached out toward him with their propelling tentacles. Was he food? Or was he just there? He did what a samurai was trained to do, innately and prompted by panic--he drew his sword, the one decided upon and dedicated to the purpose of killing himself with honor when the occasion arose and he swung outward with that sword toward the bodies of the amorphous jellyfish-some stung him with their stinging cells, not knowing what else to do. |
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The samurai was dazed now and losing sight as the
venom entered his bloodstream. The jellyfish surrounded him
and sort of buoyed him up with their massive bodies, and yet
he continued to sink. As the water became murkier and more and
more clouded, the samurai began to drown, and yet
he held his sword, the one which was destined to
finish him. He held that sword because it was all that
he had left in his world, and then he passed out of sight. It is not known whether the jellyfishes's stings ended the samurai, or whether he, dazed and blinded by venom, drowned, or whether he remembered his training and his code and died in honor by taking his own life. He was entirely out of his element, so no one can be sure what happened, no one having been there to observe from his element. All that was there were the jellyfish and the sea and the unfortunate samurai, but he never surfaced again, and the sea and the sun and the jellyfish went on as did the clouds and the ever-blue sky overhead. His beautiful robe floated to the surface a short time later; it showed resplendent in the softly rolling waters, and then it too sank out of sight. His family and his loved ones seemed to mourn for him back at home. And then as each season followed each season and nature flowed back and forth into itself in its repetitious pattern, the samurai was truly no more. |
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