No Ordinary Fish Story

I am really not a TV watcher.   In fact, I am what you might call an avid hater.

However, I do enjoy the occasional diversion on particular occasions and for particular interests.  I love a good movie and there are a few late night re-runs that are welcome company on sleepless nights. But sometimes, a TV event comes around that is worth grabbing the remote for.

This is the second week in August and that can only mean one thing…

This week is Shark Week.

Shark Week 2012 is the twenty-fifth anniversary of Discovery Channel’s Shark Week, in fact.  This is reason for celebration.  Twenty-five years of Shark Week…is a lot of sharks.

The shows are about sharks.  Period.  Show titles include gems such as Air Jaws Apocalypse, Sharkzilla, and How Not to Become Shark Bait.  The MythBusters have a couple of specials on which should prove to be worthwhile viewing and later in the week is a show about how the movie Jaws changed the way we think about and study sharks and their role in the ocean environment.

Sharks, sharks, and more sharks!  Awesome.

As much as I enjoy Shark Week, there is one who loves it more:  My Sister.  Shark Week began when she was a wispy-haired toddler of three.  I’m not certain how or why she started watching Shark Week, but she’s been doing it for as long as I can remember.  By age five, her favorite movie was Jaws.  (The theme still fills her with terror, but somehow it’s still a must-watch.)  When she was here on Sunday afternoon, Sister was already vibrating with excitement about the double-roster of Shark Week and the Olympic Games Closing Ceremonies.  Tough choice – Olympics or Sharks?

My Sister and I both love Shark Week.  I wonder if the fascination is hereditary.  Kidzilla is also fascinated by sharks (although far too young for the vast majority of Shark Week programming fare).  Her favorite Finding Nemo character?  Bruce the Shark.

There are others who view Shark Week from a different perspective.  Enter my Mom. Truly a woman with genuine concern for all living creatures, Mom is concerned about the fate of the various types of shark prey.  As seals face certain death in the toothy grip of a great white on screen, Mom says, “oh, those poor things!”  This, too, is a Shark Week tradition.  My Sister told me via text that Mom wants to ask God about this animal-eat-animal setup.  And that is certainly a good question – from several angles. But Mom’s perspective brings up a solidly valid point.

Here is where it is important to note that the overall impression viewers may get about sharks from something like Shark Week is pretty standard fare in terms of media hysteria.  Discovery Channel plays plenty of shark attack shows, for sure. There are also shows about the science and study of sharks – how they live and feed, what role they play in a healthy ocean, and more.  And in all fairness, there are shows that discuss the endangered status of shark and conservation efforts (although there are far fewer offerings of this variety).  The world population of sharks is in grave danger and – as I said in my post on chocolate – you can research that easily on the Internet.  Start with National Geographic, the Shark Research Institute, and the International Union for Conservation of Nature (although that one covers more than just shark conservation).

In the end, Shark Week is great fun and it also holds the potential to be a great educator.  Perhaps if people tune in for the shark attack shows, they’ll stick around for the shows that promote awareness and conservation as well.  Perhaps my view is simplistic, but is the concept really that complicated?  It is important to remember that we are ultimately the caretakers of God’s creation – sharks included.  These creatures may instill fear, but they are also powerful, majestic, and one more example of the awesome complexity of the whole of God’s creation.

Something to think about…

“Let everyone regard himself as the steward of God in all things which he possesses. Then he will neither conduct himself dissolutely, nor corrupt by abuse those things which God requires to be preserved.” (John Calvin in his Commentary on Genesis)

“All the creatures – not the higher creatures alone, but also the lower, according to that which each of them has received in itself from God – each one raises its voice in testimony to that which God is…each one after its manner exalts God, since it has God in itself.” (St. John of the Cross)

“All created things are living in the hand of God. The senses see only the action of the creatures, but faith sees in everything the action of God.” (Jean Pierre de Caussade in Abandonment to Divine Providence)

“Because God created the natural—invented it out of His love and artistry—it demands our reverence.” (C.S. Lewis in God in the Dock)

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Quotes courtesy of Blessed Earth. St. John of the Cross’ words can be found in God’s Covenant with Animals: A Biblical Basis for the Humane Treatment of All Creatures by J.R. Hyland. All literature selections cited can be found through Amazon.com or ChristianBook.com.