And then you Get to Feed a Seal

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Sometimes life is hard when you’re six years old. Your parents take you on a getaway to Victoria, and all you really want to do is swim in the hotel swimming pool and watch TV back in your room. If they’d just let you alternate between those two activities, you would be happy, and you tell them as much over and over and over again. But no matter how many times you repeat it, they simply refuse to listen. They say things like, “We didn’t come to Victoria to sit inside and watch Treehouse. We could have done that at home. We came to Victoria to see the sights.”

You parents just do not get it.

Just how much your parents do not get it becomes clear when they decide to drag you off in the rain to a place called Fisherman’s Wharf. Apparently they have never been there, and they think the name is whimsical enough that they want to visit. You ask what there is to see there, and they say, “We don’t know. It’s an adventure!” You don’t want an adventure, you want the hotel pool and the hotel TV. You complain as loudly as you can, but they pretend they can’t hear you when you use your whining voice. You know they’re faking it, though, because a deaf person living two miles away could hear you.

When you arrive at Fisherman’s Wharf, you are not impressed. It’s raining even harder than it was when you left your hotel. Your parents refuse to buy you fish and chips at the restaurant that’s right there, because they contain gluten and your family is on some kind of gluten-free kick. They also refuse to hijack one of the kayaks up on racks so that you can go paddling around the harbour. Instead, they drag you up and down a dock in order to look at float homes. Your mother is enchanted, and declares her intention to buy one and sail away. Your father is intrigued. Your little brother is crying because he’s scared of float homes. You are bored senseless.

Float homes at Fisherman’s Wharf

Sometimes, though, just when you’ve decided that this is the worst day of your entire life so far, serendipity strikes. This day, it takes the form of a harbour seal. A man is feeding it whole, raw fish from the dock, and it’s jumping up to eat them. While your mother hems and haws about whether or not he should really be feeding a wild animal, he offers your brother a fish. Your brother, to his great sadness, is too little – but you’re not. Finally, being six pays off. Your mother decides to swallow her objections, because she knows that this is the thrill of a lifetime for you, and you get to feed a fish to a seal. Afterward, a little fish scale sticks to your finger like a jewel, and you declare that you will treasure it forever.

Seal at Fisherman’s Wharf

This is the best day of your entire life so far. You love Fisherman’s Wharf.

What would happen if you stopped looking at all the things that aren’t going your way, and looked for the seals instead? How would that change things for you? It’s an idea worth contemplating.