The Brave, Foolish, Peeking Fish

A parable, allegory -- more correctly put, an apologue. The origin and concept belong to Sr. Miriam MacGillis (links to an interview) founder of Genesis Farm. Here's another interview. I'm borrowing and expounding to share concepts influencing me at this time in my spiritual journey...

It's like fish in a lake. Their entire world view is only what lies below the waterline. Light shines "down" from the "sky" in patterned intervals. There are other fish similar in appearance yet with subtle differences in size, coloring, habitat, diets, communities and ways of interacting in their environment. There are also completely different life forms -- the whole making up an interacting eco-system. The small community the hero of our story lives in teaches its young, from birth, there is no other reality beyond what they experience and understand in their closed-system world.

But one day a brave, foolish fish decides to do something courageous and risks to see what, if anything, might be beyond the boundaries of the existence it knows. Swimming to the water's surface, pushing an eye just above the waterline it takes a peek.

What it sees is too unfathomable, too magnificent, too overwhelming to take in but for a second. The fish quickly dunks back below the water's surface, frightened by what it had seen. It was foreign and contrary to all the teachings. It swam back to the security of what's always been known and believed. The brave, foolish fish remained silent about its experience. No one would believe anyway. They'd judge it as simply an illusion, over-active imagination or fantasy. Yes, it's best to forget the whole thing and continue life as "normal"... (to be continued)

What did the fish see?