If a bird loves a fish, where will they live?

Transcript

If a bird falls in love with the fish, where will they live? I came across that question in an essay recently and it's been sitting with me because the writer's answer was quietly brutal. The bird was never built for the water, the fish was never built for the sky, so they keep meeting halfway. Deeply in love, both slowly drowning, both pretending it doesn't hurt. And everybody needs that as a story about relationships. But stay with me one second longer because I think it's about every place you've ever tried to belong. The job where you're shrinking yourself to fit. The city everyone loves except you. The room where you rehearse being someone else before you even walk in. And you see, we keep asking what's wrong with the fish. Why is it slow? Why is it tired? Why can't it climb? And nobody asks about the water. Because a fish on land looks broken, right up until you put it back. And the same animal that flailed on the sand is suddenly untouchable. So maybe the question was never whether you're enough. Maybe the question is whether you can breathe. And if you've been failing somewhere for a long, long time, before you go changing yourself, check the water.

Transcribed automatically from the video, so small errors are possible.