November 28, 2008

The Room in the Universe.


081126, originally uploaded by Erica the Ninja.

I once had a dream I was standing in a room in the universe, a space only defined by the slight distortion of light coming from the stars around the edges. Across the room from me stood a fish, his front fins crossed over his chest as he leaned on the wall for support.

"You humans," he says, "you think you have it all right, but you don't. We have always been far more intelligent than you, we know things that you couldn't even imagine." And with that, it all faded away.

I sometimes wonder how sad it must be to be a fish in a bowl, to have a home so small it lost its excitement in the first minute of habitation. To swim back and forth, over and over, pooping in your own drinking water, eating in your own pooping water. Sometimes I feel, though, that we just fool ourselves into thinking that we do not live in bowls, that we have infinite resources and playgrounds to play on and that we are much better off than they.

3 comments:

ChefNick said...

Prescription: Please read "Surface Tension" by James Blish.

Call me in the morning.

William Mondragon said...

today i am the fish in the poopy water

Keren said...

we also poop and eat in our own drinking water... funny, that.