Koi Dragon

Recently I stopped in at the local pond shop and chatted with the owner for a few minutes. Geoff did not have much time to just chat as he was getting ready to visit a prospect – a possible future client who wanted to put in a pond on their property, likely as not, in the backyard. Business is booming and Geoff has had to take on additional staff.

Most ponds, he tells me are not much larger than say a bathroom and usually have a fountain or waterfall feature. The sound of water is soothing. But the bigger ponds, which are increasingly in greater demand these days, want another feature – a bit of depth and space for a collection of koi. The space so that the fish can grow, the depth so that it is too deep for a heron to stand in the water and help himself to an instant a serving of the freshest of sashimi!

The koi is a noble and most revered fish and has long been celebrated as a symbol of success. We know it as carp. In Japan where I grew up the fish enjoys national status and in the spring, during the festival of the child, Japanese households string up kite like koi on a flagpole – one for every child in the household, blue scaled koi means it’s a boy, red scaled koi means it’s a girl. They actually look like those socks that weather stations and small airports put up to see which way the wind is blowing.

Legend has it that the koi is the only fish strong enough to swim against the currents of the Yangtze River and that it swims upstream until the first waterfall, where the fish vaults into the mist and transforms into a water-dragon, a symbol of great luck and golden fortune.

What I find fascinating is that the koi is not your ordinary fish. It does not swim with the current and so does not get caught up with the mainstream masses. It is noble and swims against the current of mediocrity. For its reward it becomes a dragon – the most powerful of creatures in Chinese mythology. The koi is symbolic of bravery, strength, willpower, patience and grace. Is it any wonder that it is both admired and revered. I think that the readers of AppleSeeds are Koi Dragon!