One Eyed-Jack – A Remix of a story written 20 years ago… - February 23, 2021
It was a long time ago in a galaxy far away. About 20 years ago in Sudbury…
I was working part-time on a contract as a counselor at Laurentian University’s Student Services. I was as low on the totem pole as you can get, but my amazing boss – (the late) Denis Lauzon – loved my work and hired me whenever the budget allowed. Sadly, it didn’t allow very often.
Many of the students lived in residence and many of them were so lonely. They were not permitted to have pets. How sad to not have someone happy to see you come home. I had one of my “big ideas.” Surely the folks who ran the residences wouldn’t object to the students having a goldfish.
So I bought an aquarium, set it up, and filled it with what are called “feeder fish” – the cheap but beautiful goldfish you can buy for very little money. That is all well and good, but the students needed a habitat and gravel and food and a toy for their new friend to swim around. Gravel, food, and dollar store figurines were very cheap. Large fishbowls – not so much.
I chatted with the chair of our church council (All Peoples United Church) about my project, and (the late) Lorne Chuipka said he had an idea. Long term care residences put out dozens of huge glass jars into recycling bins on a regular basis. He collected them. I washed and rinsed out these jars – and voila! Mini aquariums.
There was no lack of demand for my “goldies.” I instructed the students on proper care. And there was only one rule. No flushing your friend down the toilet at the end of term. It had to come back to me. Unless the student took it home.
I did have one fish brought to me. But it wasn’t one of the ones I gave away. A mature student was moving out of town and had a giant silver goldfish that she could not take with her. Would I take it? I could not say no. Once of the reasons was that this was one of the saddest fish I had ever seen. He was geriatric, minus some scales, massive, and he only had one eye! Denis named him “One Eyed Jack.”
I did not want to put him in my fish tank at Laurentian. I was worried he’d eat his new friends – he was so much bigger. So I brought him home. I was running a cold water tank there with a number of mature fish. I introduced him, and my fish returned the favour by trying to eat him. Oh no!
I had a back up tank in storage at home – one of those stories – so I put it Jack in there. And – since we were running short of surfaces to put things on in our living room – we put Jack on the kitchen counter. And he lived there happily for some time.
Then one day he was upside down and near the bottom of the tank and I thought, “Oh dear.” And I scooped him out with the net, and he immediately started wiggling like wild as if to say, “I’m not dead – I’m sleeping.”
Next day, same thing. And the next day… Turns out upside-down swimming is a common problem in goldfish and the cause is a disorder of the swim bladder. And the cause of this disorder is usually because the fish is too fat. As in to say, overfeeding… Oops. And the treatment? Feed him a lot less. So I did. It was hard to say no the forlorn fishy – waiting at the side of the aquarium – going “um um um um.” But sure enough, he turned right side up again!
In time he appeared upside down once more and I pulled him out with the net, and he didn’t move. I swished him around the room to wake him up a bit. Nothing. Put him back in the aquarium. Still nothing. One Eyed Jack was no more. And I gave him the traditional “burial at sea” for dead goldfish.
*****
Why am I thinking of Jack today? Because recently I read a story about an unfortunate goldfish in Wolverhampton. The unfortunate fish – I’ll call him Jill – found himself living upside down at the bottom of his tank after a bout of swim bladder – you know, a disorder which affects buoyancy – which in this case was found to be untreatable. Stacy O’Shea who runs The Garden Sanctuary from her home made Jill a special lifejacket using tiny plastic tubing, t-junctions and a little polystyrene.
And now, because someone took the time to care and had the smarts to do it, this cute little fellow is truly enjoying goldfish life.
*****
I was listening to an interview with Rabbi Arial Burger by Krista Tippett on “On Being.” The Rabbi said that a fundamental principle of all Jewish tradition is BE A BLESSING. He teaches that the Hebrew word for blessing is closely related to the way you need to bend your knees when you have something heavy to carry. So being a blessing can also be a burden.
Burger continues: But a blessing is something that’s heavy, and at the same time, it lifts us up. It’s liberating to live for something bigger than myself. It frees me of my own small-mindedness…
And I picture dear Denis Lauzon, bending over the bucket of dirty fish water, checking for wee goldfish. Not wanting any of them to be lost.
And I picture dear Lorne Chuipka, bending over the side of a nim bin, fetching out so many huge jars. Not wanting to miss any of them.
And I think what a blessing they were to the students, and the goldfish, and me. How their bent knees lifted us up, and freed us from a myriad of concerns – big and small – even if only for a few laps around our own particular goldfish bowls.
*****
You can read the original One-Eyed Jack Story here. https://www.sudbury.com/blogs/steven/one-eyed-jack-237317
I was working part-time on a contract as a counselor at Laurentian University’s Student Services. I was as low on the totem pole as you can get, but my amazing boss – (the late) Denis Lauzon – loved my work and hired me whenever the budget allowed. Sadly, it didn’t allow very often.
Many of the students lived in residence and many of them were so lonely. They were not permitted to have pets. How sad to not have someone happy to see you come home. I had one of my “big ideas.” Surely the folks who ran the residences wouldn’t object to the students having a goldfish.
So I bought an aquarium, set it up, and filled it with what are called “feeder fish” – the cheap but beautiful goldfish you can buy for very little money. That is all well and good, but the students needed a habitat and gravel and food and a toy for their new friend to swim around. Gravel, food, and dollar store figurines were very cheap. Large fishbowls – not so much.
I chatted with the chair of our church council (All Peoples United Church) about my project, and (the late) Lorne Chuipka said he had an idea. Long term care residences put out dozens of huge glass jars into recycling bins on a regular basis. He collected them. I washed and rinsed out these jars – and voila! Mini aquariums.
There was no lack of demand for my “goldies.” I instructed the students on proper care. And there was only one rule. No flushing your friend down the toilet at the end of term. It had to come back to me. Unless the student took it home.
I did have one fish brought to me. But it wasn’t one of the ones I gave away. A mature student was moving out of town and had a giant silver goldfish that she could not take with her. Would I take it? I could not say no. Once of the reasons was that this was one of the saddest fish I had ever seen. He was geriatric, minus some scales, massive, and he only had one eye! Denis named him “One Eyed Jack.”
I did not want to put him in my fish tank at Laurentian. I was worried he’d eat his new friends – he was so much bigger. So I brought him home. I was running a cold water tank there with a number of mature fish. I introduced him, and my fish returned the favour by trying to eat him. Oh no!
I had a back up tank in storage at home – one of those stories – so I put it Jack in there. And – since we were running short of surfaces to put things on in our living room – we put Jack on the kitchen counter. And he lived there happily for some time.
Then one day he was upside down and near the bottom of the tank and I thought, “Oh dear.” And I scooped him out with the net, and he immediately started wiggling like wild as if to say, “I’m not dead – I’m sleeping.”
Next day, same thing. And the next day… Turns out upside-down swimming is a common problem in goldfish and the cause is a disorder of the swim bladder. And the cause of this disorder is usually because the fish is too fat. As in to say, overfeeding… Oops. And the treatment? Feed him a lot less. So I did. It was hard to say no the forlorn fishy – waiting at the side of the aquarium – going “um um um um.” But sure enough, he turned right side up again!
In time he appeared upside down once more and I pulled him out with the net, and he didn’t move. I swished him around the room to wake him up a bit. Nothing. Put him back in the aquarium. Still nothing. One Eyed Jack was no more. And I gave him the traditional “burial at sea” for dead goldfish.
*****
Why am I thinking of Jack today? Because recently I read a story about an unfortunate goldfish in Wolverhampton. The unfortunate fish – I’ll call him Jill – found himself living upside down at the bottom of his tank after a bout of swim bladder – you know, a disorder which affects buoyancy – which in this case was found to be untreatable. Stacy O’Shea who runs The Garden Sanctuary from her home made Jill a special lifejacket using tiny plastic tubing, t-junctions and a little polystyrene.
And now, because someone took the time to care and had the smarts to do it, this cute little fellow is truly enjoying goldfish life.
*****
I was listening to an interview with Rabbi Arial Burger by Krista Tippett on “On Being.” The Rabbi said that a fundamental principle of all Jewish tradition is BE A BLESSING. He teaches that the Hebrew word for blessing is closely related to the way you need to bend your knees when you have something heavy to carry. So being a blessing can also be a burden.
Burger continues: But a blessing is something that’s heavy, and at the same time, it lifts us up. It’s liberating to live for something bigger than myself. It frees me of my own small-mindedness…
And I picture dear Denis Lauzon, bending over the bucket of dirty fish water, checking for wee goldfish. Not wanting any of them to be lost.
And I picture dear Lorne Chuipka, bending over the side of a nim bin, fetching out so many huge jars. Not wanting to miss any of them.
And I think what a blessing they were to the students, and the goldfish, and me. How their bent knees lifted us up, and freed us from a myriad of concerns – big and small – even if only for a few laps around our own particular goldfish bowls.
*****
You can read the original One-Eyed Jack Story here. https://www.sudbury.com/blogs/steven/one-eyed-jack-237317