To continue playing with our river analogy: consider a man fishing beside the river, who catches a large salmon. The man is ecstatic, for he is poor, and his fa

To continue playing with our river analogy: consider a man fishing beside the river, who catches a large salmon. The man is ecstatic, for he is poor, and his family is hungry. Just as he draws his knife to gut it, the fish speaks! It says "Please do not kill me. Throw me back into the river, for I am the Fish King, and I will grant you 3 wishes. You can have whatever your heart desires." Astonished, the man agrees, and throws the talking fish back into the water. He speaks his 3 wishes into the air: to be rich, to be respected, and to be young again. Time passes. The man goes home to his hungry wife and child, hands empty. A day passes. A week. Then a year, and youth, wealth and respect remain elusive. A year after that, the man is fishing by the same riverbank - and remember, this is an analogous riverbank - an analogy for our ancestry - and the man catches the same fish! Or is it? It looks the same, but it does not speak. There is no recognition in its fishy eyes. It just lays on the shore, gasping, flopping. The man decides it's just a normal fish after all.