Bikini Bottom

My brother and his girlfriend are on a vacation down in Southern California, doing Disneyland, traffic, and drinking– you know, the usual Southern California shenanigans. They asked me to feed their cat and their fish while they were gone. So I’ve been stopping by their house every day for six days now, and every time I am feeding their fish, I bend down and watch them for a good while. My brother’s fish tank is basically ‘Bikini Bottom’. He has Spongebob, Patrick, and Squidward's house's, as well as the Krusty Krab, at the bottom of the tank. It's actually pretty funny. The fish swim in and around the fictional scene that has now been brought to reality in some strange way. I realize, the fish in the tank know nothing outside of their ‘Bikini Bottom'. With their limited senses and short memories, they have no idea that I am there, staring right at them, inches away from the tank. They cannot perceive me, I am not apart of their reality, but I take a pinch of fish food, and sprinkle it in their water. It floats at the top and the little guys go crazy. Their entire existence in this tank depends on a being that they have no sense of and could never hope to see…

This makes me think of the theories of God. Maybe we are just like the fish? If there is something outside of our senses, we wouldn’t be able to know it. There might be big eyes staring into our earth tank, sprinkling water and shining sun, from somewhere far off, giving us just enough to sustain most of the life here for a little while…

-C.H.