Fish

People are like fish. Struggling against the aggressive currents of life, trying with all their might just to break through and find a peace of mind. No matter how much strength they have, whether that is physical strength or psychological willpower, that massive force just hits full on and washes them back again. If they do actually find a place of peace, or a current they enjoy (at their own pace/speed), a wave sweeps them out and pushes them back into those insecure and uneasy surroundings again.

Fishes flock in packs (or schools) – follow the norm, or get mocked and they’ll leave you alone… get left alone and someone else comes along and eats or destroys your very existence. Only the strong may stand against this rule.

The beautiful fish with their coloured fins and their fancy looks get admired and bought by the human race, are looked at, named and loved. While the ‘so thought’ ugly fish get left in that tank all alone waiting for that one considerate person to come and pick them up and love them until their dying day. Will they ever come? Who knows…but we still wait patiently holding onto the hope that that person may come along.

Some fish struggle up the ‘salmon run’, avoiding the dangerous clutches of the predators, and not letting any threat deter them from their goal. Working ever harder, entrusting all their effort into a dream or a task. Only to find that at the end of it all, after their moment of glory, at the end of the period of succession, darkness comes to claim its prize…you.

The other fish live in the slow lane, no need for a threat of danger when you can just sit and cruise through the water. They just sit and relax and watch the world fly by, thinking about what they may.

Fish can be caught, trapped in a bowl, going round in circles and never finding their purpose. But is there ever a purpose to be found?

Some say it is in discovery. Finding out, knowledge is power. But what happens when there is no more knowledge. No more secrets to uncover. What happens when all the things we sort out to find, we find. Nothing left to search for. Knowledge is only power when there’s more of it to find.

Some say their purpose is in their faith, or life is a long trial that if they succeed they will be rewarded. But what if at the end of it all, faith and loyalty to the world beyond, is all to waste? What if there is no prize to the end of the race – no piece to the puzzle.

Maybe the light we try so desperately to find is within us already? Maybe we try so hard seeking, and finding out, that we are blind to the true meaning of life, and will never actually see it until our eyes are open? We focus so much on what we want - the prize at the end of the salmon run - that we miss the joys of getting there in the first place. Yes the world is sort with danger, filled with peril and disappointment, troublesome and not worth it. And maybe there is no point. But if we enjoy what we have already, Savour the good moments instead of complaining and worrying about the bad. Then maybe…just maybe we might actually find what we seek, whatever that may be.

See we try so much to know, to find out, that even if we do succeed we’ll still be stuck in that same current. Still trying to find out more until nothing is left to find. Everyone is so bothered about the future, whether that be tomorrow or a thousand years from now, they forget bout the present…about now. They forget that they may only be alive for, on average, about 80 years. Yes some say they are making changes for the future of their children, but we can’t fix everything. The children we try so hard to protect will still have problems of their own, that maybe we haven’t even speculated yet. So their lives are going to be exactly as yours is now just with different issues…pointless.

The point of live is to survive, but the point of survival is to live. So therefore a circle is created. Man travels round this circle all their lives. People travel around and around that circle trying to find a purpose to their lives, around the circle of life. Maybe not even remembering why it was there in the first place…

Exactly like that goldfish in its circular bowl.