I have discovered a relaxing music channel on YouTube that is accompanied by underwater photography of sea life. It is positively mesmerizing and I find it difficult to pull my gaze away from the beautiful scenery. The stunning colors and dots and stripes and shapes of so many different fish is truly incredible. There is a whole other world down there! It helps me to understand why people choose to have aquariums and fish in bowls, although I don’t condone the practice.
I have been land locked for basically my entire life and although my parents never concerned themselves with teaching me how to swim, they were insistent that I learn to water ski. I grew up spending time at reservoirs and lakes and I love water; but because of my inability to swim with my face in the water, I have always had a fear of deep water. I was 24 years old before I saw the ocean for the first time. I fell in love with it of course, but the opportunity to live near it, has not yet come my way. I had the opportunity to scuba dive once, but my fear of being underwater prevented me from taking advantage of it. I settled for a ride in a glass bottomed boat, but that aggravated my vertigo. It was disappointing, but now I get to have the simulated experience in watching the YouTube film.
I am not exactly a fan of technology. I do my best to “keep up with the times” though the speed with which advancements have been made is mind boggling. I grew up with black and white television and only five or six channels to choose from. Photographs were taken with film and when the roll was used up you took it to the drugstore to have it developed. About a week later you could pick up your pictures. It was expensive on a girl’s meager weekly allowance and the excitement and anticipation of finally seeing your pictures was often a huge letdown. Many of the pictures were fuzzy, underexposed, overexposed, and not even printable. Today we can take numerous shots until we get the right one and we can delete as many as we want. The sharpness and clarity is amazing, it costs us nothing, and we do not have to wait for film to be developed. And, we can do this right from our phone!
The best part about these great strides in photography is that we can have hidden camera traps placed strategically in the wild to show us the amazing other species that we share this planet with. There is no need for those so inclined, to participate in the illegal pet trade and there is no need to keep fish in bowls, birds in cages, or other wild animals as prisoners. There is no need to display them in zoos or to exploit them in the circus. We can simply enjoy them from the comfort of our own homes, sitting in our living rooms, watching them on our televisions. The fish, birds, and animals can live in their own habitat, with their own kind, living the lives they were created to live. As terrestrial beings, we can have a glimpse of the underwater world and do no harm.
