I was walking along the shoreline in Altona when I saw a sign: “Do not feed mermaids.”
It sat right next to a proper city council sign about not feeding the seals. Exactly the same. Just… mermaids.
I laughed.
The council removed it not long after. If I were them, I would’ve played along.
Altona, home of dolphins, seals… and now mermaids.
Put it online. Let people enjoy it. Because the thing is, it’s funny. But it’s not random.
Something in us understands it straight away. It reminded me of Odysseus and the sirens.
He knew the danger. He knew what they did. And still, he wanted to hear them.
So he had his men tie him to the mast, just so he could get close without losing himself.
Which makes you wonder what were they offering that was worth that risk? It had to be more than sound. Something that made people forget who they were.
We still chase that. Just dressed differently.
Advertising does the same thing. It doesn’t just sell. It whispers.
A car ad that barely shows the car. Just the life around it. The woman in a power suit, the man who looks like he owns the place, the modern house.
It plants the seed that makes you believe the rest comes with it. It suggests that you’re almost there… but not quite.
That something is missing. And maybe this thing — this suit, this product, this version of you — will close the gap.
So we buy it. Not because we need it. Because we want it to be true.
We are dreamers. That’s how we move. That’s how we got here… for better or worse.
And maybe being fooled is not the problem. The real problem would be if we stopped believing altogether. That would be its own kind of death.
I watched a documentary years ago about mermaids. ‘Mermaids: The Body Found.’
It felt real. Government secrets. Hidden truths. People who knew more than they should.
I believed it.
Later I found out it was staged. And still, I didn’t feel stupid. Because for a moment, it was possible.
And maybe that’s what we’re always feeding. Not the mermaids… but the part of us that wants the possibility.