Give a Man a Fish

There’s a pun in here about “poisson” and “fission”, except we’re not promoting fission.  We’re for focus fusion.  So, apparently, is Jesus.

A fishy proposition

They say:

Give a man a fish and he’ll eat for a day. Teach him how to fish and he’ll eat forever.

Or perhaps he’ll eat until the resevoir is depleted while having bloody conflicts with his aggressive, polluting, over-fishing neighbors to the north.

In fact, he probably knows how to fish but there are bigger systemic obstacles in his way. Like disease, a lack of clean water, legacy debts, lack of credit, no transportation, and no energy (as seen in our poverty section).

Which is why we say, teach him how to harness fusion, and stand back because now there’s a real chance for everyone to eat forever.

This fish thing always struck me as a bit condescending. I think Jesus is with me on this one. When faced with a ravenous crowd and not enough resources, he didn’t tell everyone to go and learn how to fish, or to make do with less. No! He simply multiplied the resources at hand. Loaves and fishes for everyone. Life more abundantly.

It’s like they say:

Give a man a fish and he’ll eat for a day, teach him how to fish and he’ll sit in a boat and drink beer all day.