In Bedlam, one thing has always led to another, especially if it involves any kind of creativity. We spend the last couple of weeks stabilizing, re-organizing, re-planting and re-stocking our 40-gallon fish tank, which has become a work of art all its own, by me, by Maria.

We were patting ourselves on the bank for the good job we have done – we have new fish, snails, shrimp, new plants, even rock sculptures. Then the lettuce plant I ordered came in the mail.

It was too big for our tank, it sticks up too far above the waterline.

I thought briefly of throwing it out, but you don’t throw things out in my house, not with my wife around.  Every living or manufactured thing is a creative challenge.

Maria got the fine idea of planting the oversized plants in a glass bowl she had hidden away somewhere.

The lettuce look right at home in the bowl, we both turned to each other this morning at the same time and had the same idea. We saw a Beta a/k/a Siamese Fighting Fish, at the fish store the other day, we remarked on how beautiful it was. We didn’t really want a Beta, surely not for our tank. They are very aggressive fish.

When I was a kid, I bred these fish and sold them to pet stores in Providence.

Usually, the males are sold in small jars – they are very hardy – but it is believed most of them don’t live very long in the care of humans and their bowls, so I haven’t gotten one. If you leave them with females or other males, they will attack them, they also eat their babies. Not a Bedlam kind of creature.

But alone, they are beautiful, almost mystical fish, they flare up when provoked but otherwise hang gracefully in their small homes.

This opportunity would be different, I argued.  Maria didn’t need much convincing.

The bowl was much larger than the small bowls these fish are sold in, he would have plenty of room. The Lettuce plants – they usually float on top of fish tanks – would provide nutrients and food for the fish (we will feed him as well) and Beta’s love to hang out in roots and thick plants.

Maria organized the lettuce plants, we went out to the fish store after breakfast at Jean’s and we found a  beautiful male on sale. Maria also came up with a small wooden table next to a living room window, the sun streams in for much of the day, I think we ended up with a beautiful, soothing fish tank, and we put the lettuce plants to good use.

A bowl and a table also. And so another tank was born in Bedlam. Creativity is the engine here, when there is a problem, we both wonder what a creative solution would be. The bowl is refreshing to look at.

I spend some time every day starting at fish tanks.

I think we got a good and unusual one here. Thanks to the lettuce.  We have not named the fish yet.