Can one drown in one's element... If fish can drown in water, can human beings suffocate in air?
Interpretation
The quote questions the nature of one's environment and the idea that even creatures adapted to their surroundings can suffer or perish within it.
In this thought-provoking quote, Salman Rushdie explores the paradox of existence, suggesting that even beings perfectly suited to their environment, much like fish in water, can find themselves in peril. It prompts reflection on how people can feel trapped or suffocated by elements of life that are typically seen as essential or nurturing, such as their surroundings, society, or expectations.
In practice
In a discussion about mental health and feeling trapped, this quote can illustrate how one's surroundings can impact their well-being.
I've been fascinated by Machiavelli since I was very young. I've always felt that he had a bad rap from history, and that he was actually a person quite unlike what we now think of as Machiavellian. He was a republican. He disliked totalitarian government.
Killing people because you don't like their ideas - it's a bad thing.
faith without doubt is addiction
I am clearly vulnerable to these more passionate and volatile unstable relationships. I am trying to not be so vulnerable.
In India, as elsewhere in our darkening world, religion is the poison in the blood. Where religion intervenes, mere innocence is no excuse. Yet we go on skating around this issue, speaking of religion in the fashionable language of 'respect.' What is there to respect in any of this, or in any of the crimes now being committed almost daily around the world in religion's dreaded name?
Reality is a question of perspective; the further you get from the past, the more concrete and plausible it seems - but as you approach the present, it inevitably seems more and more incredible.
In time of war, the loudest patriots are the greatest profiteers.
When we reach the outer limit of what Scripture says, it is time to stop arguing and start worshipping.
The time when there is nothing at all in your soul except a cry for help may be just that time when God can't give it: you are like the drowning man who can't be helped because he clutches and grabs. Perhaps your own reiterated cries deafen you to the voice you hoped to hear.
Whatever is not stone is light
...no matter how complex or affluent, human societies are nothing but subsystems of the biosphere, the Earth's thin veneer of life, which is ultimately run by bacteria, fungi and green plants.
Metaphor is the only possible language available to religion because it alone is honest about Mystery.
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