Photo of pool survivors inspires philosophy tattoo

When the going gets tough, the slow, the ugly and the loathsome get going.
A picture taken by a local couple of a turtle, a frog and a spider banding together to avoid drowning in a backyard pool’s filter after heavy September rains has found favor on spiritual-based blogs and Web sites on the Internet.
The photo even inspired a California woman to have the image permanently etched in her skin.
“We were sitting by my parents’ pool reading books and I guess I got bored with mine, because I went looking for dead stuff in the pool filters,” said Wistar Murray, 28. “Usually you find dead spiders and bugs and sometimes mice or chipmunks, but this was really different.”
There, in the rectangular filter of her parents’ Albemarle County home, was a living totem pole of analogy and mythology: A grass spider clung to the head of a frog that sat on the back of a turtle treading water.

“I remember the spider was hanging on to the frog’s head for dear life and sometimes its leg would get in the frog’s eyes and the frog would move its head to see better,” Murray recalled. “They were just in there surrounded by dead bugs trying to stay alive. They were obviously exhausted.”
It took the couple a few minutes to understand what they found.
“We had to stare at it for a couple of seconds. We were making a commotion, but they didn’t seem to pay attention to us or to each other,” said Darren Hoyt, 33. “I guess if you were drifting in deep water in the dark and you ran across something you could crawl on for safety, you really wouldn’t care what it was.”
Murray and Hoyt, who recently married, took a digital photo of the three after they were taken out of the pool. The photo was later posted on her blog, http://www.onestar
watt.com, and his Web site, http://www.darrenhoyt.com. It struck a chord heard throughout cyberspace.

Hoyt said he’s found the picture and story on a variety of Web sites and blogs, especially sites with a spiritual or New Age bent. It’s also been cut, pasted, reposted and reprinted without permission in other private and commercial venues.
Visits to both of their Web sites increased, thanks to the photograph.
“I’ve been writing a blog for a year and a half and after I posted this picture I had 1,000 people visiting the blog,” Murray said. “A lot of people have commented on it. Some have accused us of Photoshopping it, but it’s the real thing.”
According to several sources specializing in animal symbolism, the turtle represents the self-contained creative source of the Earth, the frog is hidden beauty and power and the spider is life and creativity. Whatever the meaning, the picture had power.

“I saw it in a magazine and thought, ‘That’s such an amazing thing.’ Imagine three species coming together, working together for survival,” said Aimee Pierson, of North Hollywood, Calif. “The idea that three creatures can come together and support each other, even if it wasn’t intentional, should send a message to [humans]. It says we should help each other. We need to overcome our differences and work together.”
Pierson, 27, is a production assistant for television shows. She was so inspired by the photo that she had a likeness tattooed on her back.
“It makes me happy,” she said. “It represents the real bond between people, between all living things.”
Hoyt and Murray are happy that the event and the picture have been inspiring.
“People really loved it and seem to find meaning in it,” Hoyt said. “That’s a good thing.”