365-Day Project: Day 4

A Flounder Fish Story Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm.??Household Tales.

A fisherman, so the story goes, once caught a flounder that spoke, begging to be released. This was granted, whereupon the fisherman's wife demanded that it grant her one miracle after another, until even the flounder was disgusted.

Today’s reading takes me back to my elementary school days listening to a teacher read some of Grimms’ folktales in a reading class.?I became more familiar with their writing as I read some of their more well-known folktales when I was studying for my elementary education degree at the University of Iowa.?However, I don’t believe I had ever read this story before today.

This folktale tells the story of a fisherman who catches a talking fish but releases it to live when it says it was an enchanted prince.?When returning home without a fish, the fisherman tells his wife about catching and letting this unusual fish go.?The fisherman’s wife tells him he should have wished for the fish to grant them a new house to live in before he released him.?At his wife’s request, he reluctantly returns to the sea to ask the fish to grant her wish to move out of their small, dirty hovel and into a new house, and it is granted.?In short order, the house is deemed "unsatisfactory" because of its size and the fisherman returns to ask the fish to grant them a bigger and better house to live in and the wish is again granted.?

This cycle of requesting "bigger and better" wishes continues until one day the fisherman asks the fish to grant him the wish of his wife becoming God.??

“Flounder, flounder in the sea, Come, I pray thee, here to me; For my wife, good Ilsabil, Wills not as I’d have her will.”

“Well, what does she want, then?” said the Flounder.

“Alas,” said he, “she wants to be like unto God.”

“Go to her, and you will find her back again in the dirty hovel.”?

And there they are living still at this very time.

Why do many of us so easily adopt this mentality and mindset??I have a couple of ideas.?Unfortunately, I formed this opinion the hard way before age 36 without even understanding it.?First, everything about our culture, economic system, etc. encourages competitiveness.?In a competition, there needs to be a way to keep score.?The easiest way to keep score is by earning money that can buy “things”.?Second, these purchased “things” need to be counted and compared to everyone else’s “things”.??If the number of new “things” added doesn’t measure up, success is questioned, regardless of the reason.?

For example, sometimes people will feel guilty or embarrassed if they decide to take a new job for less money.?They feel like some people will question their desire to be successful.?This thinking seems very foreign to me now, but it wouldn’t have been prior to age 36.?Keeping score only in financial terms doesn’t help us discover our purpose.??

The first half of my career was spent jumping between different jobs, always in search of more responsibility and, you guessed it, more money.?This thinking and behavior drove a lot of instability into my life, but I couldn’t see it.?I figured I worked hard for my money and deserved “nice things”, so I bought as many nice things as I could afford and then more.?These two images of my watch collection visually tell the story of that ten-year period of my life.??

This picture doesn’t need to say 1000 words, it just tells me that I hadn’t discovered my purpose in life yet.

I sold most of this watch collection and I can honestly say that I don’t miss any of it.?I struggled to remember some of the watch models that I even owned to include in his picture.?Most days, I hardly wear a watch–too inconvenient.???

Matt

P.S. I haven’t gone down to the sea to speak with the fish since 2009 and I feel great!

To learn more about me, as well as my coaching services, please visit my website at?https://www.silverarrowcoaching.com/

Resources

Kindle version of The Harvard Classics ($1.99):?https://www.amazon.com/dp/B089K4RP1F/