Humans Should Act More Like Goldfish

This past week Renee and I were watching one of our favorite shows, House Hunters. The premise of the show is simple; each couple or persons are given a choice of three different types of houses. At the end of the show they must select 1 of the three choices. As I was watching the show I made an interesting discovery; it was sort of like and Eureka moment, those rare moments of brilliance where one comes up with something original and unique. I came upon the thought that we as humans should begin acting more like goldfish. Why? 

The goldfish species are a unique species to fish. The gold fish like most creatures possess the amazing ability to adapt to their surroundings. Most interesting is the gold fish’s ability to adapt their growth to the size of their surroundings. So for example if your gold fish lives in a bowl it will never grow beyond 2 inches, but if it is placed in a pond it could grow up to a foot or more. So how does this apply to us mere mortals?

Last night as I was watching the show, the couple that were filmed were seeking to move out of a small, crowded 2 bed room apartment. The thing the stood out to me was that the couple had 4 storage garages filled to the brim with stuff that they had stored and accumulated over the years. So what is wrong with that? This small example I believe highlighted how in America our tendency is to be too materialistic, possessing too much stuff; stuff that is always saved for some distant future that never seems to arrive. I would argue second to obesity the biggest problem with our country is its obsession with the accumulation of “stuff.” Almost everywhere that you look there is stuff, stuff, stuff and more stuff. I even have family members of mine who hoard so much “stuff” that they can’t move around in their own surroundings.

We need to become more like goldfish growing our “stuff” only in proportion to our surroundings. So the smaller our home or living spaces the less we possess. I am also not advocating that when our surroundings increase so we should fill our extra spaces with even more “stuff.” We all need to diclutter,  in order to get the “stuff” out of our lives and make room for the “stuff” that truly matters.