Free will and the feeder fish

Who scooched?

 (Translation: who moved over and why?)

Once upon a time...a lawyer was trying to convince me that 'free will' was where it's at. And, to an extent I agreed, but my "extent" compromised her "all" bit, which she was adamant about. She was RIGHT. She was a lawyer...! 

I think about it allot...free will and then what we are just subjected to and how it might effect a person.

We went to the fair this weekend and won a fish, which got us to the pet store where we bought another fish to keep the first one company.

Two Little Fish.

Just before us a man had asked for a bag of 'feeders', which were the same exact fish we were purchasing 'one' of for .30 cents, along with some $3.99 flake food and a $4.99 pink plastic plant.

I thought about my conversation with the lawyer and wondered what she would say about this situation. Clearly, the individually purchased fish had the advantage and it's little life was taking a radical tack away from those of his tank mates with little or no 'will' involved at all. My feeling was that the lawyer would have condemned the 'feeders' for making the bad decision to be caught. It was clearly their fault they would soon be digested, instead of being transported to the land of multi colored day glow rocks and opal plants, of filtered tanks and abalone shell caves. THEIR FAULT!

The wheel of fortune spun twice for us that day though as somehow we managed to get a very tiny guppy in the mix too. It was stuck in the net from a previous purchase, and released when our new pet was plonked in it's double wrap plastic bag.

"We get to keep it??" My daughter excitedly asked. "Yep" said the guy working there, "she's yours"

"Mama, her name will be Hestia - goddess of the hearth and warmth". She was so excited. 

Well all right then.

Hestia disappeared  on the way to our friends house for the weekend.

Athena and Aphrodite looked innocent enough, but when Hestia surfaced later minus her tail and quite dead - we all knew what had happened.

Fait. Fait? Free will? Free will.

Goddess of the hearth was now a translucent little fleshy lump with large staring eyes, bobbing - in a way live fish do not.

Is it fair? Is anyone at fault?

Lawyers! 

So - it seams to me that to constantly measure one life, in all it's glorious aspects, against the rest and expect it to be fair...or insist that it can be made so through sheer hard work and determination is...infantile and eventually you would be lonely and disappointed, or alone in your measurable excess. I figure most people measuring are not measuring what they have that others don't - that they need to give away, but what they do not have that someone else has that they need to get.

Conversely - to begin to acknowledge the inequalities in our individual circumstances and reach out to those with less, and to be able to accept help from those with different talents - to give and share, not just 'get' - creates community.

Just trying to figure this out...