What this ADULT had, learned from the conversation with his own young daughter, translated…
All children are, philosophers, and, often, they’d, blurted out a question, which caused us all, to get stuck in our thought processes.
Yesterday, as I was feeding the fish, Happy suddenly put her head toward me, “pops, do you think the fish in the tank are happy?”
I don’t know if it was because she’d read my discussion in Zhuangzi’s Art of War, or that she’d gotten inspired by Nemo, who’s trapped inside a tank and wanted to get back into the oceans, anyway, she was, really focused, as she’d asked me the question.
I’d asked her, “Happy, do you think they’re, happy?”, without a second thought, she’d said, “Nope, because they couldn’t, swim so freely, only inside this, transparent box.”
“But, if they were swimming in the rivers or the oceans, they may get eaten by bigger fish, in the tanks, they’re, safer, and get their meals regular, and they wouldn’t go hungry,” after my explanations, she’d, agreed.
I’d continued, “Happy, if you were a fish, would you want to live inside a tank, where it’s, safe, or, would you rather be in the oceans, to swim freely?” Happy rolled her bright, round eyes, said, matter-of-factly, “Pops, of course I want to be in the oceans, it’s so boring, inside a tank, you can’t go anywhere you want to go!”
I’d played with her, “But, you might get eaten by the bigger fishes, then, you’d, die”, I’d thought I’d given her a hard problem, but, the very next second, she’d, rebutted, “But fishes die eventually, even if you live inside a fish tank, you’d, eventually, die, daddy, you’re so dumb!”
Recently, as we were rehearsing for the new script “Men & Women Falsely Married”, I’d kept wondering this question. The script was about a pair of brother and sister, with separate same-sex lovers, in order to keep the truth about their sexual orientation unknown to their families, they’d falsely married one another’s partner. Mei-Ling, who was a playwright, who’d directed the play with me, she’d added a few extra scenes, wanted to use the animals in the African deserts, the rainforests, to show the rawest desires of man, to make it like the “urban jungle” scenes, to symbolize, how after humans are socialized, they’d felt compelled to suppress their animalistic instincts, to get bound by morals. I’d especially liked one of the scenes, with the two mothers after finding out their own children were homosexuals, and had falsely married, had gotten together to go to the zoos to hang out—
Mother of Wu: “Do you think…if these animals are, blessed, or, are they, unlucky, being kept, inside the zoo?”
Mrs. Yang: “It’s hard to say, but at least, being in the zoo, it’s, a whole lot safer, compared to if they’re, running all over the streets.”
the footage from the T.V. show, from Youtube…
Mother of Wu: “But, is it worth it, trading in their freedoms, for safety?”
Then, the two moms started discussing whether or not they should just, play along with their children’s acts. If not, they’d worried that their children’s coming out will cause them to get discriminated against, is it that the society took away their courage to be who they are? Or, are they the ones, lacking courage, to face the world?? As we are criticizing the world, did we not remember, that we’re, a part of it? There’s, too many complicatedness in the adult world, that’s, blocking out who we are down in the cores, or maybe, we should, learn from the six-year-old’s innocent ways of interpreting things, or maybe…………
And so, from this parent-child discussion of things, this adult learned, that sometimes, the adults just, overcomplicates things, that things should be simpler, and yet, as adults, we added, a ton of things that are, unnecessary in our lives, making our originally simplified lives, complicated, and, we’d, lost our innocence, and can’t see the world, through a child’s perspectives, and that, is why this world is a total mess, because it’s, ruled by adults, who are so, messed up!
Life, the Obstacle Course 