Thursday, April 14, 2011

The Special One in the Tank, or a School of Fish

Half empty, half full. I'm not trying to be a pessimist or a mystic dreamer.

I'm just reflecting. One of things that is frustrating about today's world is that when we are in a small tank, it's easy to be special. Yet, in the big masses we're part of a collective and so unspecial.

I write this reflecting particularly on corporate America, but can apply it to many other scenarios.

In a corporate world many times we are "special." Perhaps we're the only man or woman fit for a certain job, or commended for a certain achievement.

We work hard. We come home tired. But sometimes we're even proud.

We are an important fish in our small fishbowl, but talk to another fish, in another fishbowl and your complicated special this and that is distant and not special to there small fishbowl.

And while I find something redeeming in the special fish in the small tank or the collective swimming of a school of fish all doing their thing in a collectively special way, it makes me...

...a little sad because I think of how unspecial some of our praised accomplishments are.

...it makes me feel free that we can just be us and not strive to be the special fish in a small tank.

...it makes me feel challenged to find a bigger tank to be a special fish in a big tank.

...it makes me contemplate what is really great.

Photo via Larry Smarr's Underwater Fish Photos.

2 comments:

Shipping Wars said...

Because of technology, innovation happen almost everyday or even every hour and people are in competition in aiming the top.

Cathy Walker said...

Really make sense. A fish in a fishbowl can live without talking to another fish in other fishbowls but it will make him grow slowly and never develop at all.

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