Would you rather be a jellyfish or a cloud? It has to be one or the other. If you opt out of the choice or choose something else, you’re irrelevant as far as the jellyfish and the clouds are concerned. I know it’s not a great selection. Neither a jellyfish nor a cloud has a brain. They’re more or less at the mercy of forces they can’t control and are mostly water—much like human beings. And, like people, they can do a certain amount of damage. Jellyfish sting, sometimes severely, and clouds start raining and sometimes don’t know when to stop. They don’t do that with any malicious intent. It’s just their nature to do so.
There’s a difference, of course, when you’re forced to choose. You don’t completely check your human brain at the door. You have the option of changing from one to the other (and changing back). Moreover, you might decide to be a Weekend Jellyfish or a Cafeteria Cloud. Those who see themselves more solidly as jellyfish (despite the contradiction that presents) might see the Weekender as a JINO (Jellyfish in Name Only). Among jellyfish, that’s considered a severe term of abuse.
Clouds are naturally aloof—quite above it all—though sometimes they descend as fog. They justify the fog as the necessary complexity with which a given issue must be regarded. The fog entails slowing down to ensure the least amount of damage is done. There is movemen
