There is this turtle here at the biology ponds that is balancing on it's belly on top of the concrete edge of the pond. It's legs are extended in the air behind it and it's neck is reaching up at an angle as if it is trying to feel the maximum effects of the wind against his face. At his moment, life seems pretty good to be a turtle. However, I could be wrong that the turtle is not worrying about anything. "In looking at Nature, it is most necessary to keep the foregoing considerations always in mind-never to forget that every single organic being may be said to be striving to the utmost to increase in numbers; that each lives by a struggle at some period of its life; that heavy destruction inevitably falls either on the young or old, during each generation at recurrent intervals."-Darwin. People might ignore these turtles thinking that cannot learn anything from them or connect with it in ways they can with other animals more like ourselves. "I'm afraid we give owls credit for wisdom chiefly because they look like us. Behold the rounded head, the prominent eyes set in front, a disk of feathers radiating outward from each eye like cheeks, dark slashes across the forehead like eyebrows, the lethal beak protruding only far enough to resemble a nose. Aha, we think, here are feathered, midget versions of ourselves; they must be smart."-Scott Sanders. There is nothing physically similar about this turtle and myself, yet I know we are alike in other ways. I, too, love to find a spot secluded from others, bask in the sun, and feel a cool breeze across my body. What a great existence these turtles have. I wouldn't exactly trade being a human to be a turtle, but it must be nice to have everything you ever need all around you. To spend every moment of the day trying to decide whether you should swim or sunbathe. For your greatest desire to be wanting sunshine on your back. To only know the meaning of physical needs and to not have your life controlled by other wants and desires. To know that you will spend your entire life in the surrounding 50 feet. To be so slow and still in a world that moves so fast all around you. The UT tower bell chimes, but this means nothing to these turtles. Time is nothing.