Yesterday in Ketchikan I saw for the first time in my life the attempts of salmon to swim upstream to spawn. The images stayed in my mind and, this morning, revealed themselves as a metaphor for life. The impossibly strong current of modern day living proves overwhelming for many. A majority wait in the stills taking comfort from both proximity to and common cause with so many others. In the shadows of those calmer waters one fish is indistinguishable from another. Even there though , there is a little jostling and more than a little aimless movement. From time to time a brave soul throws himself into the current to commence the long, exhausting and frequently unsuccessful struggle to move up. There is no co-operation; the only way to make it is on your own. All around lie the bodies of the failures.
Perhaps the metaphor is not complete. The fish cannot cheat, lie or buy their way to the top. They make it through their inner strength or remain behind to be eaten by birds, flies and rats. In the human condition we are blessed with a range of feelings for ourselves and others. There can be co-operation, encouragement and even intervention. There are also perspective and reason. We can choose to stay in the stills and survive to lead valuable lives. We can choose to think no less of those who make such a choice.
Swim upstream if you choose but look before you leap.
This entry also appears in my new blog at www.johnoram.spaces.live.com
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This is surely why there are less Salmon than humans. If we were about to start a task that had reminders all around of those that had gone before and failed, we would stop and think, to see if this really is the best way to achieve our objective.
ReplyDeleteIf you use a little html you could link direct to your new blog with the address.Such as this below.
John Oram's New Blog Location
David Burdon's Blog :-)