The human trait of turning the world around them into an extension of their experiences can sometimes take matters to the point of absurdity.
Life seems to have become more complicated over the years, offering more choices than I care to grapple with. This came home to me when I went to buy tropical fish food for a newly established aquarium. When I saw what was arrayed before me, my heart sank: whole shelves stacked with products for fine-tuning the diet of the discriminating fish.
I found myself rummaging for my glasses to read the text-heavy descriptions on a collection of products. There were "power diets", "daily energisers," and "colour enhancers". After poring over the testimonials, I felt more lost than ever. Finally, a young man approached me. I said: "I am looking for fish food."
Without missing a beat he asked, "Are your fish stressed?"
"I beg your pardon?" I said.
"Are your fish suffering from stress?" he asked again. "Perhaps from competitive pressures from other fish?"
I looked around for a witness to this conversation. "Well, I don't know," I said. "But they don't look like they are enduring any hardships."
The fellow blanched. He must have realised that he was not dealing with a sophisticate in the ways of fishes. He shook his head.
Truth to tell, perhaps we are living in a complicated and an overly sensitive age. Careful not to tread upon the feelings of others, we have imposed human sensibilities upon the lives of everything — from geraniums to guppies.
As a biologist, I harbour a "live and let live" attitude towards living things, but I am also a realist who stops short of attributing humanlike goals and desires to the earthworm. And I have found that there are times when giving another creature its due, and only its due, can help put things in perspective and relieve human anxiety in the bargain.
I eventually found generic, no-frills fish food in a local discount store. My pets ate it up with great enthusiasm. If I did not know better, I would say that they glowed with gratitude and happiness at the spontaneous appearance of fish flakes on the surface of their world.
