The Shrimp's Life

Recently I received a magnificent gift – an Ecosphere. This self-contained environment was inspired by NASA, as they researched into how to support life on future space colonies. It truly is a carefully constructed system which can support life for several years. Inside the glass bulb, which contains water, air, beads and an artificial grid on which bacteria grow, there are also two tiny shrimps swimming around. They add a flash of orange to this otherwise black and white world. I thought this gift to be the ultimate in executive toys. Of course busy executives don’t have time to muse on metaphors, but if they did, what similarities might they find between their own lives and that of the shrimp? How many of us live hermetically sealed lives whose not-insubstantial challenge is to find enough food to live for the day? How limited is our outlook beyond the bubble of our immediate environment? Can any of us control the hands that play with our lives? What would happen if someone decided to juggle with our home for sport? What would happen to us if they dropped and burst the bubble of our existence? When I read that the shrimp may live for up to 20% of their natural lives in the Ecosphere, I had a Buddhist moment. I felt guilt at the idea that this tiny being was swimming purely for my curiosity and delight and its forced incarceration would shorten its life. It might indeed be a cause of concern if the situation didn’t reflect the reality of so much of human existence. We live in closed environments, encouraged to fear events over which we have no control and are told what to think. By accepting this we artificially close down our depth of social engagement and restrict our loci of control. Society encourages us to compete for an ever greater share of limited resources so that we can better defend our bubbles rather than cooperate and share the abundance. We are infused with suspicion of our neighbours so that while engaged in petty squabbling we cannot collectively respond to the greater existential threats of global warming or nuclear war. These stresses may indeed shorten our lives. A still sadder thought crossed my mind. How many relationships are as stagnant as an Ecosphere? How many partners feel trapped in a controlled environment? As coaches, what can we do to lift the veils of illusion? What is the safest way to release tensions so that people choose collaboration and advancement rather than competition and retrenchment – or separation?