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The Lion in Winter and some fish that got dead, dead, dead
By dwray in The nature of things
March 9, 2011

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If you've seen me lately, you know I haven't been in the best mood for reasons I won't even begin to explain via blog.

But just when I was thinking things were far too grim and my luck was the worst there is I came across this...LA Times story about a bunch of sardines who piled into a California harbour and died there.

Hundreds of them. Thousands, maybe even millions of these silvery little fish crammed themselves into the harbor since conditions in the bigger waters hadn't been exactly welcoming.

In my opinion The Lion in Winter a movie made in 1968 (and starring the amazing Peter O'Toole and Katharine Hepburn as Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine, respectively) is the best movie ever.

I'll watch it on the good days, the bad days, even the holidays, because the whole damn thing makes my brain grin.

Well, at one point a character says something, a brilliant matter-of-fact-ism observation.

"There's no sense in asking if the air is good if there's nothing else to breathe."

It's Henry II and he's talking about something policitical and personal and important.

Now, arguably, a bunch of dead fish and a movie about a bunch of dead British royals shouldn't have much in common, but, this is my blog and brain so they do.

The fish died because so many of them crammed into such a small harbor that they ran out of oxygen, or whatever it is that fish breathe. Usually, we can point a finger toward factories, and chemical plants and all the other awful things that dump nasty things int othe water and leave the world to deal with the consequences. But in this case, it seems that it just happened.

Spring storms, hungry whales and who knows what else ushered the fish on in. It's going to be incredibly gross to clean up, but, for once, this is just a natural, nasty occurence.

Which, in a year when birds have spontaneously dropped from the sky and other environmental deaths have had everyone scratching their heads and peering up into the sky awondering if the end may be nigh', is somehow weirdly comforting.

Much like The Lion in Winter, a dark, bitter movie about politics and family, and the ties that bind and eviscerate, there's a certain comfort in naturally dead fish. They just ran out of air. Humans are fallible and we all screw up now and then, but, guess what, it looks like this one ain't our fault.

Nice, right?