Today I discovered that two whole intrepid phrases I wrote succeeded in getting past our editor and swimming all the way upstream into publication. Imagine that, two whole phrases! I was so thrilled I highlighted them in yellow.
If I keep at it, by Christmas two whole salm… er.. sentences may succeed in getting published.
Salmon must be born optimists. If they weren’t there wouldn’t be any left.
They swim upstream against strong currents and rapids, sometimes hundreds of miles, and along the way encounter dams, waterfalls, anglers, bears, uncertain stream conditions, and habitat degradation. Many of them die on the way…
All this so they can return home to spawn.
Then most die. (A few actually live to do it all again next year, they're called "iteroparous"--are they the lucky ones?)
We writers have a lot in common with salmon. They have to face bears and waterfalls; but we brave editors and publishers.
And like salmon we have an inner urge to keep going and never give up. We leave little pieces of ourselves, even if only in journals or on scraps of paper, in hopes they will develop into full-sized articles, like salmon only a few actually do. But we, and they, keep trying hoping that the world will be a better place because we left our mark.
Check out this video of salmon braving a waterfall. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YYnipsg5Sco&NR=1
To learn more about these amazing creatures go to:
http://www.globio.org/glossopedia/article.aspx?art_id=26
http://www.blm.gov/education/00_resources/articles/Columbia_river_basin/posterback.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salmon
http://www.washingtontourist.com/salmon/journey/glossary.html
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