World of Wonders: In Praise of Fireflies, Whale Sharks, and Other Astonishments

Nezhukumatathil’s mother is a psychiatric doctor and an American immigrant, originally from a small village in northern Philippines. At Larned State Hospital in Kansas, she is subject to racist mistreatment from patients and families of patients, but she never vents to her family; she writes about her feelings in her journal, which Aimee sometimes reads covertly. Despite her stressful, demanding work schedules, she is an attentive and caring mother, patiently listening to her young daughters and cooking “hot meals from scratch” (4). On family vacations especially, Nezhukumatathil feels her mothers’ care; she writes that “each day off from work and spent with her family was something sweet and rare […] Only on those trips would I know such a degree of tenderness, the quiet reassurances a mother can give a daughter” (10). Reflecting on her childhood, Nezhukumatathil remembers both her mother’s attentiveness and her stoicism.

Upon retiring, Nezhukumatathil’s parents move to Florida. Nezhukumatathil’s mother plants several orange, tangerine, and pomelo trees. She gives oranges to neighbors, church friends, and family. She takes delight in feeding orange slices to her grandchildren, just as she did with Aimee and her sister as children. Nezhukumatathil is grateful for the tender memories she has of her mother and continues to be inspired by her mother’s caring spirit.

Nezhukumatathil’s father is also an immigrant. His family is Malayali, from the state of Kerala, along India’s Malabar coast. In Phoenix, he works as a respiratory therapist at Good Samaritan Hospital. Like her mother, he works long hours, but he takes time every weekend to bring his daughters on hikes in the Arizona mountains, “pointing out mica-edged rocks or ocotillo blooms or the occasional chuckwalla skittering behind a boulder” (32). Like Aimee, he is fascinated with the natural world and intent on passing on his knowledge and reverence. Driving home from family vacations at night, he insists on stopping by the side of the road to watch fireflies, a memory for which the author is later grateful. In Florida, he is very upset when Chico the cockatiel escapes and drives around for hours looking for him.

When Aimee returns from school after being chastised for drawing a peacock, she takes out her anger on her father, telling him she doesn’t like the many peacock decorations around the house. He doesn’t respond to her but takes down the decorations the next day. Like Aimee’s mother, her father is patient and stoic. He shows his love by introducing his daughters to the wonders of nature.

Nezhukumatathil introduces her husband, Dustin, as someone who shares her enthusiasm and curiosity. On their first date, Dustin doesn’t cringe when she tells him about the disgusting smell of the corpse flower. He is curious and tells her a month later that he’d like to plan a road trip with her to see one bloom. They get married seven months later. He laughs with her and the macaques on their honeymoon in India and is excited to dive with the octopus hunter on their trip to Greece.

In addition to sharing her passions, Dustin is a supportive husband and father. Nezhukumatathil calls him “a man who’d never flinch, never leave my side when things were messy, or if he was introduced to something new […] a man who’d be happy when I bloomed” (73). He takes responsibility while raising their children, taking care of them when Nezhukumatathil leaves for academic conferences.

Nezhukumatathil has two sons, whom she usually refers to as her “eldest” or “youngest,” revealing once that her younger son is named Jasper. Her eldest son shows up in “Calendars Poetica” and takes his first steps at the end of the chapter, and the author gives him a whale shark finger puppet in “Whale Shark.” Just as Nezhukumatathil’s father passes on his curiosity and love for plants and animals, she passes it to her sons.

Both sons demonstrate emotional attachment to animal life. In “Octopus,” the author’s eldest son is distraught when he watches the octopus die in his mother’s hands, and Nezhukumatathil says he “never ate octopus again” (107). When the chrysalis fails to open after several weeks in “Monarch Butterfly,” Jasper prays for the butterfly inside. Jasper sleeps very little as a baby, and Nezhukumatathil often carries him around the house at night. He is “famous among […] friends and neighbors for constantly opening his wee mouth in shock and surprise and wonder” (125). Finally, in “Firefly (Redux),” the author’s sons are enchanted with the fireflies they see every night in Mississippi. In these essays, Nezhukumatathil’s sons are examples of wonder and love being passed on through generations.