Sometimes it takes a giant prehistoric turtle to appreciate your mother.
It started with an article in The Washington Post about paleontologists discovering the remnants of a prehistoric turtle that lived in South America ten million years ago. The fossil shell was 9.5 feet long. They estimate the turtle weighed up to 1.25 tons. The males had horns that faced forward on their shells for battle. The fossil shell had bite marks from the giant crocodilians that lived in the same area. Wow.
But this did not make me think of my mother.
That giant turtle shell DID remind me of the Native American legend, about the world being built on the back of a turtle shell. The Norton Anthology of American Literature’s version is “The Iroquois Creation Story.” It begins with a pregnant woman descending from the upper world to the lower world on a magic mattress. The monsters in the lower world are (rightly) alarmed by said descending mattress. And they don’t want harm to come to the woman from the things that live in the water. So they ask a large turtle to support her on its back. Which he does.
Long story short: After the woman lands on the turtle’s back, she gives birth to twins. One twin is good and the other is evil. The evil twin decides to be born out the poor woman’s side, and so she dies. But the twins remain on the turtle and it increases in size until it becomes the Great Island, which is essentially Earth, or at least North America. And the good twin honors his mother by making her head the sun and her body the moon.
But this is not what made me think of my mother.
The Iroquois creation story, which I first heard in elementary school, DID remind me of all the children’s turtle stories out there. Turtles and tortoises seem to be especially popular in fables. There are turtle tales from literally everywhere: Japan, the Philippines, China, India, Africa. There’s even a World Turtle Day (May 23). And in addition to the Iroquois creation story, there are other turtle stories from North America. I discovered a really fun one from the Gabrielino-Tongva Indians in California that explains earthquakes. According to them, California was created on the backs of seven giant turtle brothers. Everything is great when the turtle brothers are happy and they stay together. But eventually, like all siblings, the turtles quarrel. When they try to swim away in different directions, they cause the earth to split and shake. Thus earthquakes.
We’re getting closer to my mother.
All these children’s tales made me think of my own children and how much they love seeing turtles in the wild. Which made me think of the three snapping turtles we visited in the pond in Arnold Arboretum when we lived in Boston. That led me to my memory of the snapping turtle my parents brought in after an afternoon fishing trip one summer when I was nine or ten.
My mother was the one who caught that snapping turtle. Aha.
Because of that, I have a healthy fear of snapping turtles. They have those dead eyes that resemble sharks’, and a mouth like a beak. I suspect they’re smart, too. The three that lived in the Arnold Arboretum stayed near the ramp that went into the pond where the kids gathered. They kept to the bottom, unmoving, so they looked like stones. I think they were waiting to ambush the kids and have some finger sandwiches for lunch.
My parents warned me not to put my fingers near the snapping turtle my mom caught. Snapping turtles have strong jaws and can strike quickly. But even after my parents cut the head off, and the snapper seemed harmless, I was told to stay away. Apparently a snapping turtle head can still bite after it’s been separated from its body.
It gets scarier.
After my parents took all the turtle meat out (to make turtle soup), and only the cleaned-out shell and tail were in tact, the turtle still didn’t quit. When my dad hung the shell by the tail to dry, the tail continued to move the shell back and forth. Picture that empty shell, slowly moving back and forth without a breeze.
So how does this all relate to my appreciation of my mom? First, in all of the stories I read, the turtles were male. Apparently we live in a male-turtle world. I love the idea of my mother— my tough, no-nonsense, expert fisherman mother—conquering the turtle. And not just at the lake. I think of her when she was a female partner in her mostly male accounting firm and taking on all the snapper turtle businessmen that exist there. It makes me proud.
But then I also think of the mother in the Iroquois story that was responsible for the creation of the world. And my tough, fearless mother was that, too. When my sister and I were kids, she created a world for us. She kept us safe in that world. She was warrior and nurturer. As a mother now, I appreciate how she balanced those roles.
Turtle conqueror, world creator. At the end of the day, she was all things.
She also happens to make the best turtle soup.
Sources
Baym, Nina, and Robert S. Levine, eds. The Norton Anthology of American Literature. 8th ed. Vol. A, Beginnings to 1820. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2012.
Duttagupta, Anirudha. “Turtle Tales—Celebrating Turtles with Stories from Across the World.” The Kahani Project, May 28, 2016. http://thekahaniproject.org/turtle-tales/
Fisher, Anne B. “How California Was Made” from Stories the California Indians Told. Temple Newsletter, August 2010 Supplemental. Temple of the Goddess. www.templeofthegoddess.org/Newsletters/aug2010-supp.htm
Thebault, Reis. “Turtles the Size of a Car Once Roamed the Earth. Scientists Just Found Their Fossils.” The Washington Post, Feb. 13, 2020. www.washingtonpost.com/science/2020/02/13/giant-turtle-fossil/