Some More Aquarium Theology

Here's the frustrating thing about my son's aquarium. It doesn't follow the instruction book. It's not like building a model airplane where the parts are all labeled and each step is illustrated clearly.

There are in fact, no hard and fast rules about setting up a tank. Cycling a tank or allowing the nitrogen cycle to get started is a sort of black art. We put six fish in 4 weeks ago. Three of them died. Most of the books say that the toxic levels of ammonia should be at zero at this point. But they aren't.

I asked two different pet stores for advice. They gave two different answers. One person said not to change the water in the first four weeks. Another said to change 30% of it. The books and websites advise to change anywhere from 10-25% of the water anywhere from every day to once a month. I have split the difference and changed 5-10 the 29 gallons about every week.

We haven't lost a fish in two weeks. Tacker, Target and Mickey are the only survivors of the original six. Perhaps we should have had an Original Seven, like Project Mercury but that's my childhood, not my son's. We cannot add more fish until the ammonia level stabilizes at zero and it's still at .25.

There's something to be learned here. At various stages in my life, I have tried to put together belief systems for myself (first conservative, then liberal) that never really thrived. I sought certainty but always received conflicting ideas and opinions. Like dead fish, I lost many cherished beliefs along the way. In both cases, my belief systems never reached a point where they could accept new fish.

For the past five years, I have tried to establish the new fish tank of a new church. Again, there never seems to be a right answer for any challenge and I have even lost a few fish as new ones were added to the community.

Perhaps the spiritual life is more like starting an aquarium than building a model airplane. Let him who has ears hear!

Comments

[tomboygirrl]

this makes me think about "Finding Nemo" and I'm trying to decide which tank character I most resemble.

[Bill McCracken]

Don, if you get back to reading this, I would love to hear about where you are now in your journey. I know that you went from conservative to liberal and, not wanting to fit into a label, you are emerging or progressive or something. But are you now an amalgamation of stuff from the conservative side, stuff from the liberal side, and stuff that doesn't fit into either category?

I know from some of your sermons that you don't care for the "pick and choose" theology that some people follow. But, in a sense, isn't that what we must do if we are to be discerning people? Isn't there a way to take parts from different traditions and incorporate them into a more transformative worldview?

[Don Heatley]

Bill,
No, I am not a fan of cafeteria spirituality, even though I know it is inevitable. All of our spiritualities are "pick and choose" in some sense, whether we admit or realize it or not. However, I find that at least being part of a historical religious practice is a healthy corrective to a generic spirituality. As Huston Smith said, "Religion gives spirituality traction in history."

So, while I don't want to be derogatory about New Age Spirituality or whatever one calls it, such approaches appear not to have an established historical tradition against which one can compare one's own journey. In our own Christian tradition, we have a whole Bible with which we all (not just inerrantists) have to wrestle. Not to mention two millennia of tradition, our own sense of reason and our own experiences. That's a healthy corrective and balance that keeps me always re-examining my own theology.