Pandora's aquarium She dives for shells With her nautical nuns

 I love aquariums.

Thinking about it, it seems so silly to gripe out loud, "oh, I haven't been to an aquarium since last year," when it is so fortunate to even be in the proximity of so many nice ones.

I've spoken a few times now about how I very sad that the California Academy of Sciences changed so much. I do not dislike all change, but I do question the efficacy of change. The California Academy of Sciences is made up of multiple institutions within the same museum (hence the "Academy" title). One of these  is the Steinhardt aquarium, which recently celebrated 100 years. I don't know what disappointed me more when it reopened--the aquarium or the natural history section. What used to be a sweet, cheap, and relaxing thing to do on a rainy day or after school is now a claustrophobic, congested, over-crowded absolute nightmare. The congestion and poor layout are especially palpable in the aquarium. A  lot of what is good or interesting about the CalAcademy changes were directly lifted from Monterey Bay Aquarium.

Again, I am not simply a curmudgeon steadfastly, vehemently opposed to any and all change. I simply (and very gently) question the efficacy of change. I have an insatiable need to know WHY. And not the hand-waving simple reason, I want to know the REAL why. How much of it was really needed, and how much of it was simply someone or their friends getting a lucrative contract? It's more than just losing a personal epoch (or even a communal one)--it's that it was lost and replaced with something that is legitimately unbearable.

I've been to aquariums all over the country. As I type this out, I am wearing a seal pin from The Coex in South Korea that my friend brought back for me. I daydream about going to the aquariums in Chicago and Atlanta. I daydream about going back to Monterey again. I love how soothing aquariums are (minus the Steinhardt). I love that we know more about space than we do the ocean. I just wish that going to an aquarium nearest to me were an enjoyable experience. I wish that Monterey weren't prohibitively expensive or so far away.

To stand  in the dark against a a sunlit against a 25 foot tank and gaze in breathless, humbling wonder, to at once be so present and feel so disconnected, small, and insignificant. In the grand scheme of things, we really are so small.

Aquariums are truly such beautiful things.