If Fish Could Talk

One day two fish were conversing in the ocean. The first fish said to the other “I’ve learned of something astonishing called Water. Apparently, this Water is all around us, provides everything we need and we could not exist without it.” The second fish was intrigued, but skeptical and set out to learn more about this remarkable thing.

After being gone sometime, he returned to report back to the first fish. He explained, “I’ve been all over this ocean from east to west, north to south, top to bottom and I have not seen anything that remotely resembles this Water of which you speak. I’ve seen nothing that could possibly surround, support & sustain everything.”

He continued, “During my long and tedious swim, I have deduced that Water is a delusion which exits only in the imagination of fish. Furthermore, belief in Water evolved as a social construct from various fish cultures to help explain how we can swim, breath and live. Look, the ocean can be a scary and mysterious place, so fish just made-up different kinds of Water a long time ago to help explain things.”

“But if you won’t believe in Water, how can we discuss things like earth, wind & fire?” said the first fish. “What are those?” said the second fish, “More superstitions? I have no more evidence of the existence of Water (or earth, or wind, or fire) than I do of a giant swimming seaweed monster or ‘The Fairy of the Sea’. THERE IS NO WATER! We would get along swimmingly if you would just forget your irrational belief; you are on the wrong side of oceanography my friend.” With that, the second fish swam off.

The first fish was left floating there and thought, “Better to be on the wrong side of oceanography than on the wrong side of reality.”

"but whoever drinks the water I shall give will never thirst; the water I shall give will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”
John 4:14

The preceding was posted in the early days of this blog and was inspired by a talk given by a Franciscan Friar named Fr. Albert Haase. I thought I’d re-post it with a few changes since we have more followers now and it’s such a fun story to share. Besides, I recently got a new fish tank and it all came flowing back to me.