Perspective and The Power of Self-Awareness

A whale, after getting some air at the surface, submerges back to the depths of the ocean. He passes by two fish and says, “Morning boys, how’s the water?” The two fish look at each other and say, “What the hell is water?”

In the story above (paraphrased version from David Foster Wallace’s speech) it is because the fish were always in water, and had nothing to contrast that reality, that, to them, there was no water. Because it was everywhere and inescapable, it ironically became invisible and unknown to them.

Just as fish don’t realise they are in water, because it’s all they have ever known. Humans don’t realise they are in a miracle.

Life, every element of it, is miraculous. Just because you are always immersed in it, to the point you don’t realise it, doesn’t change the reality.

• Everything you see, a miracle.
• Everything you taste, a miracle.
• Everything you touch, a miracle.
• Everything you hear, a miracle.
• The ability to think, a miracle.
• The ability to create, a miracle.

“Morning boys (and girls), how’s the miracle?”

Resist the urge to look at each other and say, “What the hell is a miracle?”

The miracle is everywhere.