The Fable of the Carp by Barry J. Northern There was once a school of carp who lived in a slow river with many other water creatures. The river was a beautiful place, full of life, and there was plenty to eat for everyone among weeds, which floated in the clear water. The carp ate well along the river bed, where their favourite food lay, and grew large. Some carp found ways to eat more than others, for they were clever and rooted deep in the mud, and so they became larger more quickly. One carp grew so large in this fashion that he crowned himself king. Even so, he still desired to grow larger, and even began to eat the other fish of the river. Now many of the carp were jealous of King, even while they desired to be as large as he, and so they too rooted deep in the mud and ate the other fish. A few of the carp among them saw that the once clear water was growing muddy, and that there were less kinds of fish in the river than there once were, but most simply desired to grow bigger like those around them. One carp mourned the lost beauty of the river, and so he vowed not to root in the mud lest he help dirty it, nor to eat the other kinds of fish and water creatures, for there were few now left. Yet his efforts made little difference, for all the other carp only desired to grow bigger like their neighbours. He tried to turn the others to his ways, but they would not listen to him, for he was small. One day, King searched for food among the weeds, but found little, and after a time he crossed paths with Small. “Ah,” he said, “a little fish for me to eat.” Small raised his fins. “No, King, you cannot eat me for I am a fish of your own kind.” “But there are no other fish in the river,” said King, and though Small tried to escape, he could not swim as fast as King, and so King swallowed him up. Soon only the largest carp were left swimming with King. No other fish or water creatures played among what was left of the weeds, which were barely visible in the muddy water. King lead the carp on a long swim for a new place to live, but the river only lead to the inhospitable sea, and though some had always said they could live there, they found they could not. So they knew then, when it was too late, that they had spoiled their only good place to live. But still they continued to root in the mud and eat the weeds, for now they were large fish and could not become small again. The Fable of the Carp by Barry J. Northern is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.0 UK: England & Wales License. Hosted by The Internet Archive, download MP3 here. Music by Jeff Wahl from the album, GuitarScapes, track 14 "Allegro in D Minor", and provided by My Podcast Alley feed! {pca-c39023e5ddc790eb138a25ec5c3b5285}