Sea Changes

In our world, there’s really no such thing as a pair of people who are exactly alike. Even identical twins, formed from the same snarl of cells and genetically identical at their origins, have small differences between them. They possess different fingerprints. They can come to be unlike one another in many ways given the chance to grow in differing directions. They are their own people — individuals in every way that truly matters.

However, in Idem, sameness was the name of the game, and uniqueness was a concept completely unheard of. Every citizen had the same milk-white skin and the same chestnut-brown hair. The same single-file parade of thoughts buzzed around inside their heads every day like lazy bees. Every citizen was also androgynous — each one male, female, and everything in between at the same time — so even the most fundamental human differences were absent in Idem.

When something inside the biology of an Idemite told them it was time to reproduce, they’d develop a curious duality a little bit at a time. One day, they’d have two heartbeats instead of one — doubled identical thoughts that rang out in stereo. Then, a thin, silvery seam would form down the center of their body over the course of the next day, becoming more pronounced in the days that followed. And finally — suddenly — there would be two where there was just one before. And so, the community of Idem would grow.

Idemites lived out the majority of their days performing only necessary tasks. Some spent their days planting and tending the potatoes that grew in long, perfect rows throughout the year. Others passed long afternoons and evenings by the seashore, taking turns going out on the waves in their long, slim boats to bring back crabs, and oysters, and seaweed, and the blue-green scaly fish that were the mainstays of their diet. And so life had been since long before even the oldest Idemite could remember.

What the Idemites didn’t understand was that things were only the same as they’d ever been on the surface of things. Beneath the smooth, black stones that lined the shores of their beaches — under the rolling waves that continued to bring them a bountiful influx of sustenance day in and day out — newness waited. A blossoming age tossed and turned in its sleep, waiting patiently for its own time to be born.

The seeds of change were also germinating in the very waters the Idemites sailed every day, infusing the fish they ate with the essence of novelty and individuality, evolution and change. Only the roots of the potatoes that grew under the ground and the networks of the grasses the Idemites walked over every single day remained the same — as constant and uniform as they ever were.

Eventually, the seeds of change would plant themselves inside the beating hearts of the Idemites themselves, causing many of them to rethink the way things were and ask the very first burning questions. And once a question is asked, it demands an answer.

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The first couple of times an Idemite appeared that wasn’t exactly identical to its parent, it caused quite the stir, as you can imagine. The initial changes weren’t anything dramatic — or at least not at first. In fact, they would have been easy to brush off as mere flukes — a few stands of white hair here or a pair of eyes that were a slightly different shade of brown than usual.

However, when Idemites began to appear that were blonde, blue-eyed, dark-skinned, or taller than average, it was clear that something major in their society was changing. The community did not know what to make of it and did not have a system to help them categorize what was going on. They could not call it a blight, because there was no such thing. They could not suggest a disease, because they did not know what it meant to be sick.

So, they elected to continue on with their lives as if nothing was wrong. With any luck, whatever was going on would sort itself out before too long, and life could go back to being the way it always was.

But the seasons continued one after the other. Snow would cover the land in the winter, making everything look clean and new again. Chunks of ice would form and float in the tumultuous waves of the salty sea, and the Idemites would tap into their abundance of salt fish and dried potatoes as they always did when the days were short. Then the spring would come again with its blades of grass forming and awakening underneath the dwindling snow banks, encouraged in their formation by the increasingly warm, yellow sun overhead.

The seasons felt the same, but the people of Idem continued to change. Within just a few years, the uniformity had all but disappeared from the collective populace. Soon, new Idemites that were individuals in nearly every way were no longer the exception, but the rule, and they forgot that things were ever any other way. However, the changes were more than skin-deep.

The Idemites were changing in another way, as well. They were growing curious. They were beginning to wonder why this was happening, and soon, they made the connection to the things the earth and the ocean gave them to live on. By then, it had become abundantly clear that the fish were changing. Only some had the familiar scales of blue and green they had always had. Now there were fish that were orange, or yellow, or silver. Some were large while others were small. Some were salty while others were sweet.

Individual Idemites developed tastes for specific varieties and came up with different ways to enjoy them. They learned to combine them with the floury, reliable potatoes from the earth and even to add new things they’d never thought of as food before. They discovered the clean herbaceous flavor of rosemary and the deep, woody taste of wild mushrooms.

For the first time, cooking became more than just another way to survive. It had also become an art — a way to elevate the everyday to an exciting new level and make it more than it was before. Poetry, music, and literature were soon to follow. Idem began to resemble a fully developed society more and more every day.

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Of course, with the emergence of individuality comes the introduction of independent thought. The Idemites became divided on their feelings about the sweeping changes that had rocked their community and their entire way of life. Many loved it and reveled in the ways their minds were opening up before their very eyes. Others were frightened by it and wanted it stopped.

By then, the people of Idem were fully aware that the changes were connected to their diets.

Those who continued to spend their days by the sea and to eat the fruits it produced were changing and evolving, thinking differently and longing for more of the same. Those who stayed in the fields and ate only the potatoes that grew there — never rounding out their diets with crab, fish, lobster, or oysters — were much the same as they had always been. Their minds were largely the same, as well, not understanding in the least why anyone would want to fix something that was never broken in the first place.

The potato eaters tried to show the seafood eaters the error of their ways. They talked about how much more peaceful life was when everyone was the same and no one longed for anything more than what they already had. They emphasized how sameness and uniformity left no room for jealousy, competition, or restlessness — all things that had quietly crept into Idem along with the changes from the sea.

Meanwhile, the seafood eaters tried to explain to the potato eaters how it felt for one’s mind to become open and free, creative and capable of growth.

They felt as if they’d been living in a huge building, but had also remained confined to only one room their entire lives. A man could think that room was his whole world until the day it occurred to him to turn the doorknob, open the door, and begin to explore the rest of the house. Another day, he might wander out into the yard, discovering the warmth of the sunlight and the freshness of the rain. The day after that might find him wandering down the road to visit his neighbor and then beyond to even bigger, more exciting things.

The potato eaters saw life as different because of the Sea Change — the term all of Idem was now calling the initial catalyst to all these new things. The seafood eaters considered their minds to have been opened to all the possibilities that were already there. To them, nothing had truly changed. Everything was as it always had been, but now they could see it and appreciate it fully.

The potato eaters saw a curse they didn’t want any part of. The seafood eaters saw a blessing that allowed them an opportunity to truly live for the first time in their lives. The potato eaters could not — would ­not — walk on the black stones of the seashore anymore or partake in the bounty of the sea so they could see for themselves. The seafood eaters continued to nourish their bodies and minds with all the good earth provided, including the potatoes that were the same as they ever were.

Eventually, the inevitable happened. The society of Idem split in two with the potato eaters retreating into the mountains, far from the duplicitous sea that had become the source of so much dissension. They were never seen or heard from again, save for the stray legend or tall tale someone would tell after a chance sighting in the woods.

The seafood eaters, on the other hand, continued to expand and evolve, growing into one of the finest societies ever to exist on earth.

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Originally published on Medium.