The one that got away

There's a phrase in fishing parlance - 'The one that got away'.

It signifies the fish that was never caught. The peculiarity of this particular fish is that as time goes by and the story is passed down and repeated, the fish steadily becomes a bigger prize catch. I guess there's no lying or subterfuge in this. It's just that the human mind tends to dwell on all the things that could have been. And in the process, tends to continually exaggerate the goodness of lost things.

Another aspect to this whole thing is that there is absolutely no possibility of verifying the claim of how big the fish that got away was. What would have happened if that fish was caught? Would it have been really that much of a prize catch? There would always be somebody else catching a bigger, better fish. That's the real problem. The one that doesn't get away is always subject to comparisons and dissatisfactions. While the one that does is absolute and pristine in all ways.

I feel that a career as an airline pilot or a filmmaker is my 'one that got away' fish. I might have sucked at both. Maybe I am doing what I can do best. But this fish that got away from my life will forever swim in the fishbowl of my skull.

And that's a lesson in human nature to all of us.