Lessons from Nature: Living together

 

I’m sure we have all seen fish in the aquarium. They are so beautiful; shiny, unique, colourful, fancy and attractive. This aquarium which has inspired me is in a house that is already surrounded by natural beauty; rugged trees, smokey hills, swaying plants, strongly blowing winds, creeping insects, wiggling worms, hoping frogs and crickets and chirpy birds. I had to describe the surroundings because the aquarium gets less attention, unlike the city aquariums since here the ambience is different.

There is something special about this aquarium, it houses a variety of fish – a black aquarium Shark, Kois, Glowing tetras, Black-skirt tetras, Swordtails, Shubunkins, common Goldfish, Fan-tailed Goldfish and even an Angelfish. I observed the aquarium continually because I was surprised by the variety in a single aquarium.

I sat near the aquarium like a great thinker. I felt good about myself and wanted to observe something poles apart that no one has observed and share it with my friends. I was already feeling like the great Isaac Newton and thought that the fourth law of motion will be formulated by me. It was already 15 minutes, nothing unusual yet. I was as bored as the aimlessly wandering lone black Shark in the tank. I felt as useless as the solitary Angelfish. I too wanted to spit bubbles like the Goldfish and clean the pebbles like the Kois.  I would at least be doing something rather than whiling away time. The sudden sprint of the swordtail across the tank disturbed my trend of melancholic thoughts. I realized that the fish though so different were living together. They had no choice but to choose their companions. Similarly, we too are just placed in firms, communities, society, industry, teams, groups, etc. Do we just coexist or do we live well?

These fish are very different with different temperaments, but they are living together. I’m sure they haven’t fought because every fin and tail of every single fish was beautiful and unharmed. Can we take a clue from these fish though unique, living together sharing and caring? The sight in the tank is mesmerizing; the tiny tetras giving way to the impatient Goldfish, the Koi cleaning the huge Shark, and the swordtails making way for the slow and graceful Angel. I’m sure they must have taken time to adjust, but the way they are living together now looks like they have done a course in group dynamics. We rational and social human beings have all the more reasons to live well. Not just tolerate each other but to help, support and adjust so that everyone is happy.

Moral: Even apples can coexist in a basket with mangoes and many other fruits. Let us live together caring for each other and adjusting to make others comfortable.