Your surroundings determine your growth
The title of this post is a bit misleading; it’s only partly true that it’s the size of a bowl that limits the size of a goldfish. It’s more accurate to say that:
A goldfish in a small bowl, that’s fed just a little bit, will grow slowly and most likely die as a small goldfish. A lot has to do with the nitrate concentration of the bowl whereby the smaller the bowl, the higher the relative concentration.
But for the sake of not boring you more than I normally do, let’s just say it’s (a) the size of the bowl, (b) the type of fish, and (c) how much crap that fish ingests.
I have an interesting cross section of friends. One group is made up of my college friends, the other is made up of my business/legal friends, the other is made up by my fencing/wrasslin/fighting friends.
If there is a plus with being almost 40, it’s that I can choose exactly what to do with my time, and with whom I spend it. I get to choose my bowl, if you will.
Another thing I do is try to minimize the amount of crap I take in, both literally and figuratively. Literally, I try to eat well and minimize my intake of processed foods whenever possible. Gyros not withstanding. Pureprovender helps me out with this.
Figuratively, try to minimize my intake of crap beliefs whenever possible too. I’m regularly surprised who I find on one end of a spectrum or another.
The hopelessly liberal that believe that every person of wealth is evil (type of fish) and the intransigent conservative that ignores environment (size of bowl).
The feverishly religious is as difficult to stand as the ardently atheist. The list goes on.
I recognize my own prejudices but, because of social media, have to put up all these shrill – unsourced – beliefs.
Luckily, I can block them out but I set up a reminder for myself to check in with them every so often. But it’s ever the same. They’re in their same bowls, ingesting the same nitrogen. A frog in a well knows nothing of the ocean.
It’s disappointing but living your own life is hard enough so I just let be and swim away.
As for me, I seek bigger bowls whenever possible.
Mood: upbeat
Music: I’m just a normal boy that sank when I fell overboard
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5 replies on “Goldfish are limited to the size of their bowl”
Extremism in the social media is like tabloids. Most are based on faulty sources and I read them whenever I’m in need of a good laugh or in the mood to be upset.
I find myself rolling my eyes more and more. I wrote recently that I’m glad that we don’t have flying cars because most people are complete morons.
They shouldn’t be given the power of individual flight.
[…] it’s funny, I’m not mocking him. I always respect the people that dream bigger than the fish bowl they’ve been […]
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[…] to a dozen years ago, I wrote this entry about how goldfish are only small because of the bowls we put them in. Without being in a small bowl, they can grow up to enormous […]