Robert Bacon is the rector of St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Lynnfield, Mass., and founder of St. Paul's Young Adult Scuba Team.
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I Looked Into the Eyes of an Octopus
Getty Images / Romulic-Stojcic
WHEN YOU'RE UNDERWATER, it is so crystal clear that we’re all interconnected. Your senses are fully alert and awake, including your intuitive and spiritual self. On land we feel like singular individuals. As soon as you drop beneath the surface and are scuba diving, you absolutely feel part of — you’re filled with awe and wonder.
I had seen the movie My Octopus Teacher and was hoping to have an octopus encounter; but I figured that would be too high on a wish list. We were diving in Florida, and lo and behold, there was an Atlantic longarm octopus. I thought, Stay calm; inch clos-er. I got maybe two feet away, and I just lay on the bottom, and I was looking at it, and it was looking at me. I thought, If I go too close, it’ll scurry away. So, I just reached my hand out to about halfway between it and me. All of a sudden, it wrapped the tip of its leg around my index finger, probably about three wraps, and we were looking right into each other’s eyes. It was like Moses and God on Mount Sinai.