{"id":6978,"date":"2026-03-25T12:10:00","date_gmt":"2026-03-25T19:10:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/writtenbymurphy.com\/wonderblog\/?p=6978"},"modified":"2026-03-25T16:28:35","modified_gmt":"2026-03-25T23:28:35","slug":"i-cant-see-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/writtenbymurphy.com\/wonderblog\/2026\/03\/i-cant-see-it\/","title":{"rendered":"I can’t see it"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

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 \u201cMorning, boys. How\u2019s the water?\u201d And the two young fish swim on for a bit, and then eventually one of them looks over at the other and goes \u201cWhat the #3!!<\/em>  is water?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From “This is Water” by David Foster Wallace<\/h6>\n\n\n\n

I am good at persuading myself into accepting a circumstance. I can do such a thorough job that all other possibilities vanish.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Those fish didn\u2019t see what they were swimming in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I know the difficulty of leaping into the unknown. There are reasons to stay put.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The hero\u2019s journey studied by Campbell begins the comfortable home. The hero doesn\u2019t become a hero until he is forced into the unknown.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s human nature to cling to the familiar. It comes from my animal roots. Stay safe. Stay still.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then something happens to eject me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It could be an external disaster. Or it could be something inside me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The hero has to go on the journey.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s bad enough, but with all that long practice of ignoring anything I don\u2019t see. I can\u2019t see what I\u2019m walking into.

I blinded myself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shaking and scared I set out to find what I barely believe exists.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Clawing at the mud in my eyes, hoping my vision is still there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I tamped down the hope and fear of what existed for so long. Time to face it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hope and doubt eating their tails.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Faith gets back on her feet, looking through the cracks to where the light gets in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m going to fall. I will surely fail.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But it\u2019s not fatal, as long as I get up once more often than I fall.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I need something and I am going to chase after it. I don\u2019t entirely know what it is, but that is no reason to give up. I won\u2019t let it stop me.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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 \u201cMorning, boys. How\u2019s the water?\u201d And the two young fish swim on for a … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6978","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-random-thoughts"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/writtenbymurphy.com\/wonderblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6978","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/writtenbymurphy.com\/wonderblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/writtenbymurphy.com\/wonderblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/writtenbymurphy.com\/wonderblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/writtenbymurphy.com\/wonderblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6978"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/writtenbymurphy.com\/wonderblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6978\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6979,"href":"http:\/\/writtenbymurphy.com\/wonderblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6978\/revisions\/6979"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/writtenbymurphy.com\/wonderblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6978"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/writtenbymurphy.com\/wonderblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6978"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/writtenbymurphy.com\/wonderblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6978"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}