Monday at the Shedd

The fluorescent lights flickered on, alerting me that soon, the guests would be here. This is the life of working in an aquarium. Often times in the early hours of the morning, when there are few others around, I find myself listening for the ancient songs of the ocean. The chittering of dolphins and the low sounds of the seals. The hidden language of these creatures is one I have become innately in tune with in my time at the Shedd Aquarium. Today was no different than any other day, another opportunity to shine, another opportunity to learn, and another opportunity to grow. Layers of fingerprints on the glass made a mockery of the voice on the speaker and signs plastered all around: "Please do not tap on the glass." Reminders that the creatures the guests were here to see were living, breathing, functioning creatures.

As with most days however, the aspiring aquarists paid little attention to me, and my task of observing them continued. The first group to come through the hallway past me was a small, innocuous family. Three children, one oversized stroller, and two doting parents, oblivious to their children every movement. Nothing unique or new here, the pink overalls on the youngest caught my attention for minute, as a change of color around here was a welcome sight. A change from the dreary colors of tourism. Grays. Blacks. Blues. Almost every one of them wearing some variety of Chicago Cubs gear. As if some how representing the city they found themselves in would justify the experience they were putting me through. But they quickly moved on, looking forward to the friendly splashes of some aquatic mammal down the way. Not that I couldn't be friendly, but they did not come here to talk to me, they came for the cute and fuzzy, the cuddly and sweet, and the big and fierce.

Today however, started a very interesting conversation with one individual, who I shall not soon forget. They approached me slowly, with an inquisitive glance that left me with a feeling of familiarity, as if we had done this dance before. Our eyes met, and they quickly looked away, almost as if they were ashamed to be caught staring at me.

"Who are you?" I wondered. "What brings you to my part of the aquarium on such a calm, monotonous Monday with such depth to your eyes." They held more color than most eyes I had seen pass through here, and it was unlike most of the glossy eyed wanderers who passed through here.

"Well hello there, how are you today? I hope you are finding this to be a magnificent Monday. I often walk through the Shedd on Monday's, but I usually stay upstairs, so its unlikely that we have ever passed each other by."

A visitor? For me? I must confess that it is quite overwhelming to suddenly find yourself at teh center of another's attention. To be the focus of their eye, the center of their mind, to be the thing that they should know. It was quite unlike most of my Mondays, where my work days were much like a barren wasteland, like the bottom of the deepest trenches. Full of sludge, sand, and decay. But this visitor could bring back the colors into my life! It could be this simple conversation that packs a punch back into my life. But I digress, and I get ahead of myself. The stranger brought forth another question.

"Do you think all the animals, both big, small, and everything in between, realizes the depth of color in the same way? Do they process and feel the same way I do when I see all of the colors they put forth? Obviously they use them for protection, but do you think that they see them with emotion? Red, a firey passion, full of rage and desire. Blue matching a forlorn sea, calming sky, or the peaceful night sky. Perhaps the warmth of the sunset from oranges, yellows. Envious of the greenest greens. Do you think they feel the way you and I seem too about possessing all these colors? Is it possible for me to even possess them or will I lose them as soon as I leave?"

I was taken a back. I scuttled into the corners of my mind, wondering if I were losing my mind. "Colors did not simply exist as a decor here in the aquarium, or out there in the vast expanses of the world, they are not simply possessed. They simply are. Each of us are simply full of our own colors and we use them as we can. Human's are often too concerned with possessing or controlling, holding and keeping close. They love to confine things to these little boxes, these glass cages, these exhibits full of life to pretend they can grasp and control something as existential as color. You see, the reason you find the sea and sea creatures so fascinating, is the fact they seem to own the colors. Shifting colors. Different spectrums of color, ways you can only dream of. The sands you see as white could be vast rainbows. It is almost a sense of jealousy you hold, a contempt for the sea. Proving dominance on land by trapping the treasures of the sea here."

"Then what would you have us do, exist solely in black and white? Humans cannot simply be a dichotomy of color, we must exist in many different ways. The vast expanses are colorful its true, but can creatures of the deep hear and see colors in their minds as I do? When I hear a riff of a guitar and see the reds and yellows of high energy in my mind, or the slow flow of blue when I think of a waterfall?"

"The colors represent more to you in abstract terms of course. Animals need them, but do not possess them. They live in harmony with them, understanding their place and where they belong. Reds don't mean friends and blues aren't always calm. I always imagine colors as waves on the sea. Sometimes they flow to me, other times I am the colors you see."

They went silent after this. As if they were thinking on what I had said and planning to retort. Unfortunately for me, the tour group they had arrived with departed. So with a small, sad and silent wave, they continued on, sailing down the hallway away from me. This conversation may seem strange in the future, I may forget it tomorrow. But it meant so much now. In the moment today. I returned to my tunnel under the sand, buried beneath the corals, to contemplate, the colors I would never see. About those that don't exist yet, or will never exist at all. It is always fun to imagine colorful places, from this side of the glass.