What If People Were More Like Salmon?
It is that time of year again when the salmon return to the river beside our home in British Columbia. Every year, I am awed by the beauty and mystery of this ritual. How does this small creature travel thousands of miles to return to the exact spot where it was born? How does it pass from salt water to fresh without incident?
The salmon’s body adapts by filtering out the salt to keep it hydrated for the sea journey. This would be akin to our bodies having a built-in mechanism allowing us to breathe different air, such as high mountaintop air or scuba depth air, and then return to our normal sea level air. There would be no oxygen deprivation or bends effect.
All the salmon born in one river return to the exact spot a few years later to give birth and die. It is their biological imperative. Imagine a block party /reunion on such an epic scale that every child who grew up in your neighborhood in a particular year came back at the exact same time to meet on your street. What a marvelous experience that would be!
The female can lay her eggs and have them fertilized by several males. She will pair off with one male at a time until she has no more eggs left to drop into the sandy gravel. This increases the likelihood of a successful outcome. This would be akin to a woman who wants to have three children going to a sperm bank and reading the bios of the donors before selecting a different one for each child. She might select an athlete, a scientist, and an artist, all with no birth defects or diseases. Or she might just hook up with three randos in three bars around town. The choice is hers!
Have you ever felt the yearning to return to your birthplace? Many of us have gone on Google Earth to look at our far way hometowns we left decades ago and see what has changed. When we see an image of the gas station or corner store or the house we grew up in, there is a feeling so profound you can almost smell the scent of your childhood. I guess we are not so different from the salmon in this respect, but could we find that place in the dark without any navigational aids? I truly doubt it.
And what about how they change colour before they die? What if we could do that too? I would like to have the skin tone of a Polynesian islander before I die, because they are so beautiful. Then I could have an open casket funeral proudly with no need for make-up. Everyone would gaze in awe at my beautiful skin and wonder why I looked so pasty all my life.
So please try to be more like the salmon. They never complain and they are tough. They never need GPS and they never get lost or argue with their partners about directions. They are quiet and have good manners. Happy fall to everyone.
