For my birthday I...

[Lulu]

He's not anymore- he's dead!!

It's only been a week! (Ug.)

Mostly, I named him that because of the whiskers- he bore a passing resemblance. And because his job was to crawl along the bottom of a tank, dig up the dirt on other fish and slurp the scuzzy side of rocks. It reminded me of how Freud plumbed the psyche.

Alas- but Freud was murdered by a neon tetra named Red-Eyed Pete. Pete went back to the big house.

We traded in Freud's carcass for a healthier shrimp- named Carl. I like to think of water now as a metaphor for the dream state.

May he stay forever young.

<font color="#a62a2a" size="1">[ August 11, 2003 11:23 AM: Message edited by: Lulu ]</font>

[dwim]

yikes, sorry to hear about Freud. Better luck with Carl though... and happy belated b-day. And 28 is not old, 'cause if it is them it means I'm old too... that I will not accept.

[Exotic Ginger]

Poor Freud. Happy late birthday wishes Lulu. [img]smile.gif[/img]

[Crystal princess]

RIP Freud. And it was such a good name.
Maybe I could use it for one of my catfish.
I don't name my fish in case they die, but it's still sad when they do die.
Good luck with Carl.

[JaceSan]

Don't you think it's sadder if they die not knowing who they are?

[erisesoteric]

Naw, they knew who they were. The bad part is not knowing what to put on the headstone.

[JaceSan]

So by naming them, or any other pets, we're forcing our own beliefs and expectations on these creatures. They may not even want to conform to these ideals that are encompassed in their names.

They probably just want to get fed.

[Lulu]

Of course, that's our little problem, not the shrimp's.

If all of this corporal, three dimensional reality can be cosidered a 'box' in which the true self in encased and isolated from the cosmos, then it is easily compared to an aquarium, or the exo-skeleton of a shrimp. The corporal self is merely a temporal embodiment of the primal form- when we are released from it's encasement, then we know ourselves. The headstone is superfluous.

See- this is what comes from hanging out with Carl.

"The unconscious psyche believes in life after death" - Carl Jung MD

<font color="#a62a2a" size="1">[ August 13, 2003 12:54 PM: Message edited by: Lulu ]</font>

[RichC]

And played with.

[Exotic Ginger]

But they don't even know their names. Depending on the type of pet, they would just hear,

Blah blah blah blah blah *hands over food*
Blah blah blah blah blah *gets head scratched*
Blah blah blah blah blah *gets picked up*
Blah blah blah blah blah *gets swatted with a newspaper*