July 12: Frozen, One Position, Fairy Tale Friday

"Who's ignoring it?  Nobody's ignoring it!"  Horwitz said.  He got so damn excited and all, I was afraid he was going to drive the cab right into a lamppost or something.  "They live right in the goddam ice.  It's their nature, for Chrissake.  They get frozen right in one position for the whole winter."

Horwitz, Holden's cab driver, has a lot of opinions.  In the passage above, he's talking about the fish in the lagoon in Central Park and what he thinks happens to them when the lagoon freezes over.  The fish freeze in one position for the entire winter, according to Horwitz.

It's quite a little metaphor.  A creature stuck in one place, surviving on the same food, air, water for months and months.  Horwitz doesn't find anything remarkable in this.  It's just their nature, what they were built to do.  Of course, Horwitz is full of it, bullshitting the great bullshitter, Holden Caulfield.  But, Horwitz also touches on something that appeals to me:  the idea that a creature can live and thrive in one single situation, one environment, for a long time.

I like sameness.  I like constancy.  I'm not Indiana Jones.  I don't go out looking for adventure.  In fact, I avoid change at all costs, especially change that makes me uncomfortable or threatens my day-to-day routines.  I know I can't avoid it.  Change happens.  People die.  Jobs are outsourced, eliminated.  Money disappears.  Children are born.  However, I prefer to be a fish, frozen in the lagoon for winter.  That's what I want.  There's an admirable self-sufficiency in the image.

I owe you a fairy tale tonight, don't I?

Well, once upon a time, there lived a man named Oscar.  He lived on the edge of a small lake.  He got everything he needed from the lake.  He got fish for food, collected driftwood for fuel.  He thatched his roof with dried seaweed.  And he never strayed from his little piece of the world.

During the winter, the lake froze over.  Oscar would go out onto the ice and look down, staring at the world beneath his feet.  One December night, as he was standing on the ice in the middle of the lake, Oscar saw a bright star.  He whispered at the heavens, "I wish I could be a fish and live in this lake for the rest of my life."

He immediately was transformed into a rainbow trout.  He flopped around on the ice until he froze to death.

Moral of the story:  Don't walk on a frozen lake.  It's dangerous.

And Saint Marty lived happily ever after.

This could be you