Volume CXCIII: A Fabulous Free Lance Friday Edition for a Fish Out of Water

Hello every One, and welcome to the Fabulous Free Lance Friday Edition, thank King or Queen You for joining Me. As per usual, I have left this Project until the final hour before it is due, just as I did on the day of it’s Creation. The assignment (A-Sign-Ment/Mind) was to Write a myth explaining a common cliché, I chose ‘Like a Fish Out of Water, and this is My re-Create-Sean of that tale.

Once upon a time, there lived an adventurous Angel fish named Angie who had always aspired to live on the land. Angie would sometimes see snakes slither from the water onto the shore of the sandy beach to bask in the sun as it shimmers on the surface of the sea. Such a sunshine filled life seemed so simple and hard to conceive, but never so much for Angie to believe that it would not be something she Will one day achieve.

Most of Angie the Angel fish’s underwater friends would poke fun at Angie for her flights of folly and fantasy, laughing at her ludicrous notion of living on land. When they would stop laughing long enough to speak, it would always be something silly about how Angie’s place in the Universe is already established.

“The highest height any ambitious Angel fish could ever aspire to achieve, is sea level – that bar has always existed, has never been raised, and cannot be raised by a fish!”

Friends and family Wished Angie would abandon her dream to Live on the land and accept that even the most ambitious and adventurous of Angel fish are destined to dwell in the depths of the sea.

“All fish but Me!!!”, thought Angie, secretly.

One day, after swimming in the warmer waters of a sunny shore in summer, Angie the Angel fish was feeling even more ambitious and adventurous than ever. The sun was casting magical colours on the coral, and columns of seaweed sway seductively, alluring Angie into their tempting, tango, trance. Angie became drunk with delight, lost in the lunacy of her own imagine nation, and her determination to achieve her Life long Dream of Living on the Land was stronger than ever. Angie the Angelfish came up with her most ambitious and adventurous plan ever!

Angie the Angel fish had two very Good Friends; Sandy the Sea Horse, and Ollie the Octopus. Both of Angie’s Friend’s knew she aspired to Live on land and always encouraged Angie in any Way they could. Sandy the Sea Horse was a super strong swimmer, so Angie’s plan was for Sandy the Sea Horse to swim near the surface to launch a landing Angie can stick. Sandy the Sea Horse wasn’t so sure, and thought that as King Ollie the Octopus for additional counsel was optimal advice just to be safe. Sandy the Sea Horse secretly thought the whole thing sounded silly and unsafe but was too Good a Friend to say so.

Angie agreed to see Ollie as Sandy had suggested, though she was concerned that he would rain on their parade. Ollie was intelligent. Sandy was surely more sensible than Angie, but certainly no expert in fish to land launching protocols. Ollie the Octopus (on the other eight hands) was exactly the right Character to be as King such a Quest-Ion. Ollie the Octopus was the Oracle of the sea, every One would come to see Ollie about something at some point in their Life, and it seemed there was no Quest-Ion Ollie could not answer. Unfortunately, this also makes others feel rather stupid by comparison, so People only seek Ollie out when they Wish to know something. As a result, Ollie often spends his time alone. Angie and Sandy got to know Ollie well because they are curious and adventurous creatures who would always have new Quest-Ions to be as King of Ollie about, and Ollie is always Happy to share his Wisdom and Knowledge.

Unfortunately, the advice Ollie had for Angie on that day were not the words an ambitious Angel fish about to embark on a new adventure Wishes to hear.

“Ambitious little Angie, Will You never Give up? I have told You, this Dream of Yours to Live on the Land is just not possible, You must let that one go. There is a Purpose for You, Angie – but it is not a Life on land. If Living on land were Your True purpose, You would be dressed for the part. You don’t have legs, Angie. You don’t have lungs, Angie! How do You hope to breathe, Angie?!”

“With My mouth, like this…”, Angie proceeds to open and close her mouth a few times to demonstrate.

Ollie shakes his head, laughing lovingly, “Oh Angie, You don’t have lungs!”

Although Ollie tried desperately to explain, Angie had no idea what he was talking about. He said something about gills taking air out of the water so that Angie can breath underwater. Angie agreed but inwardly believed this must be one time Ollie doesn’t know what he’s tall King about, there is SO much more air on land! It is everywhere, she won’t even need gills anymore!!!

They stayed a little while longer so that Angie could allude suspicion before her and Sandy headed out. As soon as they were beyond earshot, Angie said to Sandy,

“You have to help Me try. Obviously Ollie has no idea, You can see how much air there is up there, it Will fill My whole body!”

“Yeah, I don’t know, Angie. Ollie’s never wrong, I’m worried about You. What if he’s right?”

“I don’t even know how that’s possible. But if he is, I’ll just jump back into the ocean, no big deal. Come on, nobody Will even know unless I succeed!”

Although Sandy was still reluctant and worried about Angie’s safety, he wasn’t very Good at arguing with his Friend and really Wished to see her succeed. Sandy also figured that if he never helped his Friend try, she Will never know and always wonder. At least today, We would know for sure one Way or the other.

Just as Angie had initially planned, she straddled Sandy’s saddle and the two best Friends started charging toward the surface of the sea. Angie’s agility was accurately articulated as she steadied her Self on Sandy’s saddle preparing the perfect pitch to launch her landing as the duo continued to rocket toward the roof of the sea.

Finally, Angie feels the waters of the sea surface break and launches her Self toward the beach with every ounce of energy she has… And makes it!!!

But as Angie attempts to accept the air into her mouth, she discovers it burns like acid!!! She can only see out of one eye, and she can feel sand stuck to her side, clogging one of her gills. The remaining gill was not saturated with air as Angie had imagined, she couldn’t breathe at all! And the sun!!! What felt wonderful and warm under the water felt like fire cooking her alive on the surface! It was altogether too much even for an adventurous Angel fish like Angie, and she began flip-flopping around in the sand, believing she would surely die for her foolishness.

However, lucky for Angie, she and Sandy had stayed to visit with Ollie longer than they had hoped. If Angie had tried her daring plan earlier in the day, she would almost certainly have died. As it was, despite Angie’s exceptional effort to launch her Self onto the shore as far as she was able, without legs she didn’t really make it very far at all. Because it was late in the day, the tide was coming in. Only moments after Angie had stopped flipping and flopping around, a wave washed over Angie’s Good gill, and she gasped for air once again. The water lifted up Angie’s tired body and carried her out into the deeper waters where her Good Friend Sandy the Sea Horse was waiting to take his Friend home.

Angie’s tale was told to many Angel fish over the years, and it is how the expression ‘A Fish out of Water’ came to be. However, it is worth noting that although Angie remained adventurous her entire Life, she would never again attempt to launch her Self onto the land, though she never gave up on her Dream, either.

Every night, just before bed, Angie would swim to the surface of the sea and stick her mouth into the evening sky to take the deepest breath she could. At first, it was to remind her Self of what had happened that day and how the air felt like acid in her lungs. But as time went on, the air began to feel less acidic, and it didn’t hurt as much to take it in.

Angie lived many long years, and raised many schools of Angel’s her Self. Her young fry had been copying Mum, gasping at the air at the surface of the sea, too. The last school of fry Angie raised were very special in-Deed, as Angie could see their front fins were forming little feet!

So maybe things aren’t as impossible as We think, maybe the really big dreams just take a lot more time and effort.