Connecting lives – symbiosis

I love salt-water fish.  Not wanting to indulge in an expensive filtration system, I visit aquariums. At a recent visit to a fish shop in Chinatown, I witnessed a clown fish caressed by a pretty pink sea anemone.   Was I imagining, the expression of joy on the clownfish, as one would, with an itchy “unreachable” spot, scratched by a friend.

At yesterday’s BioDiversity Conference held at the Singapore Botanic Gardens, a photo of a sea-anemone caught my eye.  Explained the guide:

A sea-anemone has a symbiotic relationship with a clown fish helping each other survive in the ocean.

A sea-anemone has poisonous tentacles which helps to paralyse tiny fishes it preys upon.  However, the Clownfish appears immune to this poison because of its slimy mucus covering. (Possibly the mucus contains the same chemical properties as the poison secreted by the sea anemone, hence disguising its similarity.)  The clownfish, while being provided with food, cleans up fish and algae leftovers from the anemone.

In today’s Linkedin World, we’re sometimes mistaken to think that connecting lives can be done remotely, through a platform, – the social media, and not skin-to-skin, mucus and all.

 

Is it networking, who you know, that matters? Or schmoozing? Or simply, connecting lives.

To those of us who hate the pretentious clink of self-advancement motivated networking, what about connecting lives?

Don’t throw away the baby with the bath-water.

People need people.

Like the clown fish needs the sea anemone.

 

Come grow old with me

The best is yet to be.

– Robert Frost