This is water

Once upon a time, there were these two young goldfish swimming along until one day they happen to come across an older goldfish swimming in the opposite direction.

The older goldfish as he passes nods and says, “Goodmorning, how’s the water?”

The young fish occupied kept swimming along until finally one of them turns to the other and asks, “What is water?”

It’s difficult to see what’s all around us without the lights flipped on. And I think too many of us operate without this awareness of what we are even swimming in.

This is water.

And because there is so much information to process, so much we can’t see; we create shortcuts to make sense of the world. As a result, we create biases, prejudices because we think we know what others are going through.

This is water.

And the way that our brain works, we are constantly afraid. Afraid of being seen, afraid of being judged. We are afraid that sabertooth tigers are going to attack us. Of course, there are no longer sabertooth tigers anymore so we substitute and equate the same risk when the teacher calls our name or when our boss sends us a text to call them back.

This is water.

The water is our default setting. And without awareness, we would know no better. Because that is what the culture and the status quo pushes us towards.

This is water.

HT David Foster