SEEKING PEACE AND JOY—LET’S GO FISHING!
As the faintest light reached the Eastern horizon, I started back across the Black River on the bridge/walking path whenI noticed the freeway leading to the Blue Water Bridge (heading to Canada) was strangely quiet and peaceful. This is rare. Any number of people tend to go really fast on that stretch because they figure no local law folks are going to be watching and they don’t have to stop till they hit the border. They are right. Anyway, so it’s quiet. And I noticed. Just a few steps over the water I hear the sound of a fish splashing back down into the water. It made a fairly loud splash which leads me to think it was either a pretty big fish or a small fish that caught some big air.
From time to time I see people fishing in the river and wonder if anyone has ever almost caught that one or did catch it and released. It? My stream of thought (not quite large enough to be called a river of thought you know) thenlinked up to the whole concept in our culture of “fit”—you know being a big fish in a little pond or a little fish in a big pond. How often do. We use that phrase to comfort ourselves or other or describe our situation or that of others? What is all tied up in using. That phrase?
Innocently enough it is useful for. Talking. About incongruent situations, but there’s more...or less...
The bottom line is that the phrase by definition defines the fish in comparison with other fish and with the pond. In seeking peace and joy it is always difficult to find comfort in a comparison model. Maybe you feel you are not big enough or adequate to face some big. Event which makes you a little fish in a big pond or maybe. You don’t find your current setting allows you to use all your gifts —Your pond is too small? The point is that the likelihood of being just the right sized fish in the right. Sized. Pond is pretty low and even if you feel like you have found a fit it is impossible to control the size of the fish that might be added to your pond. Also, you may find yourself in a new pond from time to time because change happens.
In the end, the whole metaphor seems like a trap where you have little chance of being the right fit and less a chance to help other fish optimize their size. It sort of. Feels. Like that whole old joke about. Camping in bear country. Camper. One looks over at camper two and says, “hey Joe you wore track shoes? You know a bear can run 40 miles per hour those shoes won’t help, right?” Camper. Two winks and says “Yep, Frank, but I only have to run faster than you.”
Anyway in seeking peace and joy it seems that trying to do better than someone else, or have more, or trying constantly to use external markers to fit in robs both your personal power and in some ways.dimishes your responsibility, and makes it more difficult. To be a full participant in the experiment we call life.
More fish stories tomorrrow.
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