Fairy Tale Spotlight: What Is Water?

Ladies and gentlemen... a parable!

Two swimming fish meet somewhere within the ocean. The first fish asks of the second, "How is the water today?" To which the second fish replies, "What is water?"

This parable is often used to help people understand that there is often more to the world than what they are willing to perceive. It is an fairly decent attempt to help them open their eyes a bit more to the situation happening around them, often referring to the people around them.

The parable was likely more directed to the far more anti-social large and crowded cities. When you have so many people squeezed into one spot, people work harder to disconnect from one another. This is, perhaps, more of an western phenomenon, yet it is still tied heavily to human nature. Culture is what it is. Nature cannot be changed, only subverted by the human will.

But I am not here to encourage you to be omni-aware of the personal lives of those around you. I am merely using the parable to explain that there is--truly is--more happening around you than you likely allow yourselves to be conscious of.

A long time ago, there was a direct attempt to do away with the once obvious mysticism of the world. At the time, we were all aware of the magical things taking place. It was normal. If a fairy were nearby, we wouldn't think anything of it... other than something like, "Oh, there's that fairy again. Hope she brings us good luck today."

Whereas today when that same fairy flutters by, our response resembles something like, "That was a funny thing to see. Must be a trick of the light or something. Oh, well. Time for bed. Need to be up for work tomorrow." Here the phenomenon was too easily dismissed. Even if it was a trick of the light, the person was already rationalizing it away as if it was his duty. This man, whoever he is, does not seem to know what "water" is.

By today, the human race has been trained to believe only in what we are told over the TV set. This is often why people cling to science so much, for it always gets the official backing. The problem with science is that it never really touches into the realm of mystical physics. It only deals with the physical properties and the cause and effects upon them. It claims that everything, no matter how strange, can be explained by science. The latter message, ironically, tends to stand on its own in people's minds even when science has explained nothing.

Remember when our silly second fish discounted the fairy he saw as a trick of the light? Was this man a scientist? Had he bothered with tons of research in order to prove that what he saw was a trick of he light? Had he even tried to make a call and ask questions to a scientist? Most people wouldn't because they already have the ideal that everything can be explained by science, so why bother actually using science to explain it? This thought pattern, unfortunately, only closes the mind.

Most people are that second fish. They turn on the TV and hear the most recent scientific claim. They might repeat it to their friends (Did you hear? They are saying eggs are bad again!), but in a few days they probably won't even be thinking about it. The thought will just revert back to "science can explain anything." In this situation, there seems to be no reason for the fish to even bother with the water around him. Let science handle it. Let the people who make and discover the science deal with whatever that water is.

After all, this fish has a life to deal with, a very boring and uninteresting life. He'll work all his life and then die later on. He never needed to know what water was. And even if he suddenly realized he was actually wet, he'd assure himself that there was likely some scientific explanation as to why it happened... and just move on.

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