[Reader-list] . In Praise of Jellyfish by Soren Kierkegaard

[Jeebesh]

"...There is a creature about which I shall fall into reverie rather  
often - it is the jellyfish. Have you noticed how this gelatinous mass  
can flatten itself into a plate and then slowly sink, then rise, so  
still and firm that one would think one could step on it. Now it  
notices its prey approaching; then it funnels into itself, becomes a  
pouch and sinks with prodigious speed, deeper and deeper, with this  
speed snatching its prey - not into its pouch, but into itself, for it  
is itself a  pouch, and nothing  else. It is so able to contract  
itself that one cannot imagine how it could possibly extend itself. It  
is just about the same with you, and you must forgive me that I have  
not had a more beautiful creature with which to compare you and also  
that you perhaps can hardly keep from smiling at the thought of  
yourself as nothing but a pouch."