Big Fish

Big Fish

The aquarium sits next to the computer on my desk, and the fish sometimes pause to stare at me as I type. At least I think that's what they're doing. I must seem like a very weird creature to them, living on the other side of a transparent wall and unable to float around at will. Big, dry and constrained by gravity--that's me: a sort of odd, five-pointed star-fish-out-of-water. I used to feel sorry for them, confined as they are to their glass capsule. But aren't we all living in transparent boxes, bumping up against our own limitations from time to time? Aren't there plenty of invisible walls surrounding us, keeping us apart? Break them down, it's tempting to think. But what would happen to the fish?