If you are not familiar with the active life of salmon, very briefly, they spawn in the rivers, and then make their way out into the sea to feed and mature, but when the mating season comes around again, the mature salmon make their way back to the original spawning grounds in the rivers. Given that they are then swimming against the flow of the river, they are having to expend huge energy in making that climb upwards, often leaping out of the water in their efforts.
Thus, we can see that the salmon are driven to push hard in their climb up the ladder of the river, and those who don’t make that push can be left behind, failing to reach the spawning grounds they are aiming for, but that is not true for all salmon that are not leaping up the river. There are some, who, through persistence and constant effort, without leaping, nonetheless, are successful at reaching their final destination.
When we look at human behaviour there are those who push hard to leap forward to meet their goals, whilst there are many who give-up, unable to meet the requirements of constantly trying to leap forward, and so they just give-up on trying to achieve anything.
Of those who use leaping to get through life, they are constantly facing more and more challenges, and many come unstuck later in life as a result.
But there is a third group. They are those who realised that trying to leap forward constantly was not going to work for them, but they still needed to move forward in their journey to meet their goals. Most of these people did not have the privilege of a fast car, or any car, as a means of going forward, but they recognised that if they turned-up every day, and if they pedalled as much as they could, they could make significant progress, a tale embodied by the concept of the tortoise and the hare.
As writers, we are faced with the same kind of choices. And yes, there really have been those who have leapt to fame and fortune through privilege or circumstance. And there have been many who have given-up writing along the way. But for the rest of us, there are an increasing number of writers who talk about turning-up every day, and writing (or pedalling that bicycle) as much as they can, to get to where they need to go (which varies enormously from one writer to another).
We have much to learn from the journey of the salmon swimming against the flow of the river, and whilst we might not find any helpful ladders or bicycles in the rivers, we continue to applaud those who leap forward, but the applause is louder for those who keep turning-up to put constant effort in every day, despite the challenges.
Fraser
September 2024