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Fish in the Water

Another one I've been using regarding the mind and language is the asking a fish if they're wet metaphor. We're the fish, and language is the water. How would a fish know if they were wet if they'd never been out of the water? Jumping out of the water helps you to notice the water, but we all still must swim in it.

Any refinements or thoughts would be helpful.

Thanks,

Joanne Steinwachs


The variant from This Is Water - Comment submitted by josh.mervis on November 8, 2017.

David Foster Wallace has a variant of it that I think is nice for certain clients:

There are these two young fish swimming along, and they happen to meet
an older fish swimming the other way, who nods at them and says,
“Morning, boys, how's the water?” And the two young fish swim on for a
bit, and then eventually one of them looks over at the other and goes,
“What the hell is water?”

If at this moment, you're worried that I plan to present myself here as the
wise old fish explaining what water is to you younger fish, please don't be. I
am not the wise old fish. The immediate point of the fish story is that the
most obvious, ubiquitous, important realities are often the ones that are
the hardest to see and talk about.

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