“On the seventh day of Christmas, my true love gave to me: seven swans a-swimming, six geese a-laying, five golden rings, four calling birds, three French hens, two turtledoves, and a partridge in a pear tree.” (“The Twelve Days Of Christmas”). In a commencement speech David Foster Wallace tells this story of two young fish swimming and an older fish crosses their path and asks, “how's the water?” and swims on. The two young fish are silent for a moment and then one asks the other, “What the hell is water?” Just as we don't really notice or think about the fact that we are walking through air all of the time, fish wouldn't necessarily notice or understand that they are moving through water all of the time. If we were to compare the material or the temporal world with water, and the spiritual world as the air above the surface of the water, then, as beings both temporal and spiritual, we would be like swans, capable of swimming in the water and soaring through the air. Satan would like to convince us that we are more fish than swan, and would have us immerse ourselves so fully in the world and all of its lures and distractions that we forget entirely that we are in the water or even forget what water is. Even worse, he would have us forget that there is something other than water, that there is a whole spiritual world above and beyond the surface of the water. But swans are not fish. They can and do swim on the surface of the water and will occasionally dive below the surface for a time, but if they are to survive, they must keep their head above water. If we neglect the spiritual part of our being, we will drown in the depths of misery and despair. The word Spirit comes from the word for breath or air. Having the constant companionship of the Holy Ghost is or should be as important to us as having the constant companionship of oxygen. If we can't go more than three or four minutes without air, then we shouldn't feel like we can go more than three or four minutes without the Spirit. But, as swans prove every day, it is possible to swim along the surface and still have air to breathe. We can still be in the world but not of the world. Even a swan can't fly through the air 24/7. It would be just as much of a mistake to buy into the belief that we could just cut ourselves off completely from the world and never touch the water again. In this life we are both temporal and spiritual creatures. We cannot yet abide dwelling perpetually in the spiritual realm and neglect the demands of our physical bodies. After every flight through the heavens where we have the opportunity to experience personal revelation and have the mysteries of God unfolded to us, we have no choice but to return to the world once more and swim in its waters. Just as swans are built for both swimming and soaring, we are designed to exist and learn from and navigate both the temporal and the spiritual worlds. As we follow the example of our Savior Jesus Christ, we will be able to strike the proper balance with all the grace and poise of a swan.
