Characters of the Tank

 One of the better parts of the loosening up of Covid restrictions is the fact that restaurants are hiring again and I managed to get my side gig at a restaurant I was helping out at. This is Korean restaurant that serves Korean Sashimi.

As with all places that serve “fresh” seafood in this part of the world, the highlight of the whole restaurant is the fish tank. Whenever I get the chance to, I like to take a peek at the inhabitants of the tank – namely the abalone, the halibut and the octopus. These three have managed to enforce a few truisms about life.

The first is pretty obvious, which is the fact that no matter what you do with your life, you’re going to end up in the same place as everyone else – the cemetery (or since I live in Singapore and our culture says cremate – the columbarium). The halibut, the abalone and the octopus’ live life at a very different pace inside in the tank but sooner or later they end up in the same place – on someone’s dinner plate:

 

 Whether you live life at a fast pace or you take it easy – you’re going to end up as dinner to a “higher power.”

The second point is that life can be very interesting depending on how you choose to live it. You can be like the abalone, who finds a spot and stays there. The abalone is pretty chill with his place in the tank. He waits for time to pass and when its his time to end up on the dinner plate, he’s considered a delicacy. I guess you could say that if the abalone was a human being, he’d be the guy in the corner, who is happy with his lot in life and he ends up becoming a “delicacy” to the rest of us because he’s simply so agreeable. It’s hard to think of bad thoughts against this delightful character.

Then there are the halibuts in life, who pile upon one another and stay there. Once in a while, one of them flaps around but then returns to his or her spot. Then, when the halibut is turned into sashimi, you find that the best in the halibut appears with a bit of bean sauce.

If you think about it, most of us (especially if you live in a densely populated place like Singapore or Hong Kong), are like the halibut. We find a spot in life and only shift into something more comfortable when someone else puts “sauce” into our lives. We’re constantly on the look out for things to make our lives feel a little bit better. Think of the way men look at fast cars and dream of how their peers will envy them for driving something so sexy. Or think of women at an expensive shoe shop. We condition ourselves into staying in the same spot but unlike the abalone who is happy to stay there, the halibuts in life are waiting for things to happen to them in the hope that it will make life better.

 

 Wait – sooner or later something will happen

The most interesting character in the tank is the octopus. Of all the characters in the tank, the octopus alone makes an effort to explore the place. Whilst the other two have taken to lying there and awaiting their fate, the octopus swims around, stretches itself or hides in a corner. There are times where this character ends up banging its head against the wall of the tank but It somehow continues to move along and around the tank.

If you think about it, those of us who are swimming around and trying to make sense of life, do end up banging our heads against things, whether they are geographical limitations (I live in a small island and as I was reminded by an immigration officer – there’s only so much to see in Singapore) or social. Whatever you do, you’re going to end up banging your head against something sometime or another:

 

 You’re going to hit your head against something if you're always on the move

Whilst the octopus is the only one of the three that hits the wall from time-to-time, it’s also the only the only one that seems to be making the most of its life and it’s probably fitting that the octopus is a delicacy when its eaten live. If you think about it, this is a fitting analogy of life. We talk about, read about and think about the characters who have actively moved to change their lives. The Elon Musk and Steve Jobs of the world are so fascinating because they’re always on the move and trying to change things. Sure, they often end up banging their heads once in a while but they are also the ones who end up changing your life as well as their own.

No character is perfect. In a way, all three are only doing as nature has programmed them to be. However, the next time you look at a fish tank, it might be worth asking yourself which character you would like to be your role model.