Ms. Turtle

Have you ever heard of Minnesota Nice? It’s a popular term for my fellow citizens, often validated in my own experience, especially when it comes to geese and turtles.

In the spring, it’s not unusual for us to wait patiently while Mama and Papa Geese escort fuzzy goslings across a busy road. We are similarly kind to painted turtles (aka mud turtles) who never lay eggs where they live. Instead, they take wayward paths in pursuit of cozy, mud holes for their spring or fall clutch of eggs.

In these two scenarios, the geese usually fare well. Their spring march is enhanced by numbers and the sheer cuteness factor, but our lady turtles are a different story. I think they’re cute in their own way, but let’s face it—they’re low to the ground and look like hard-shelled miniature tanks with striped yellow helmets.

As for me, however, I brake for turtles. In fact, I cheer for them. How can I not? The sheer boldness of their endeavor to find a safe nest despite the odds is quite impressive. And here’s a fun fact about painted turtles according to Wikipedia: “While habitat loss and road killings have reduced the turtles’ population, its ability to live in human-disturbed settings has helped it remain the most abundant turtle in North America. Adults in the wild can live for more than 55 years. The painted turtle is the only turtle whose native range extends from the Atlantic to the Pacific.”

Don’t you wonder how that happened? How has Ms. Turtle survived a constantly changing, “human-disturbed” environment despite numerous predator egg thieves and speeding machines on wheels? She doesn’t seem to have done anything in particular to change herself, and she certainly doesn’t have the power to change human disturbances. So what’s her secret?

She’s female.

That’s my story, and I’m sticking to it.