scrape_r_rational/data/cache2/6gpkdp.md

## "The Pothole and the Puddle / The Happy Little Puddle" (An Aesop)

* Author: u/1337_w0n *
* URL: https://www.reddit.com/r/rational/comments/6gpkdp/the_pothole_and_the_puddle_the_happy_little/
* Score: 21

* Created: 2017-06-12T02:44:29

### Post:

Hello, you don't know me, but I lurk here sometimes.
So I had this idea running around my head for a while now to make an Aesop from the Pothole Analogy. This morning, I woke up and before I got up, I had the full outline in my head, shelved it, got bored, wrote it up, showed a couple friends, and not five minutes ago they told me to post it here; I agreed. 
Beware: I have not taken the time to edit this, or even given it more than a once-over. I expect there to be mistakes, and welcome people alerting them to me in the comments, as well as what they think of the story as a whole.

 

The Text in Full:

On a stretch of road in the country, there is a pothole. Once during April, there was a a great downpour, followed by several cloudy days of drizzle. Because of this, there was a puddle in the pothole. The puddle was very jovial, and felt happy just to be alive! 

It looked around; both at itself, and the pothole; then it exclaimed: "Wow! This pothole is amazing! It's shaped exactly right for me to live in!". Seeing this, the happy little puddle thought to itself: "What are the chances that I would wind up in a pothole shaped exactly the right way for me? Why, the chances are so small, someone must have designed it for me! I must be special!" The Happy Little Puddle didn't appear to have much to worry about. Over the next few days, it was kept sheltered by the clouds, and replenished by the drizzle. 

Then, after a week, something very strange happened: the clouds parted, and the sun shone forth. The Happy Little Puddle didn't know what it was, having never seen it before.  But, it noticed something odd. When the sun was shining on it, it made wonderfully beautiful patterns on its surface. The Happy Little Puddle decided that it liked this sun thing, even if it did make it feel a bit hot. 

After a day, the pothole noticed something odd before it went to sleep for the night; it seemed to be shrinking. It wondered, perhaps, if the sun were causing it to evaporate, and even considered leaving for a time. It decided that it would not, because its pothole is so wonderfully suited for it, so it thought to itself: "I'll wait another day, and if I think it's still a problem, I can leave then." And so the puddle did. 

But when the sun set down the next day, it was almost gone. It found it was so diminished that it would be a great deal harder to leave. And so, the Worried Little Puddle, not wanting to put in all the work of leaving, wondered if it would be possible to still stay, and it thought for a while. 

Eventually, it remembered: "Wait, this Pot Hole was made for me. There's someone looking out for me." It reasoned with itself. The Happy Little Puddle exclaimed once again: "I'll be fine; I'm special." and so the Little Puddle stayed and kept repeating that to itself, even after the walls of its perfect pot hole became a cage, and the noon day sun wiped the last traces of it from the asphalt.

THE END

 

By the way, you can copy/paste this where ever, so long as you atribute it to "1337_w0n", "1337w0n", "Leate" or "Leate Wonceslace"

Edit: changed "fit inside" to "live in"

### Comments:

> **u/noggin-scratcher** [+17]  *I am a happy tree* (8 hours later)
> 
> Without wishing to discourage the attempt, I still somewhat prefer the brevity of [Douglas Adams' version](http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/70827-this-is-rather-as-if-you-imagine-a-puddle-waking)

>> **u/1337_w0n** [+5]  (17 hours later)
>> 
>> That's really interesting. I've heard several times someone compare intelligent design to a puddle in a pothole, but I hadn't heard of anyone using the drying up part of that. Nor did I realize that Douglas Adam first wrote it.

> **u/GaBeRockKing** [+5]  *Horizon Breach: http://archiveofourown.org/works/6785857* (an hour later)
> 
> Just fyi, linebreaks on reddit require either two enters
> 
> resulting in this kind of linebreak,
> 
> or two spaces at the end of a sentence  
> resulting in this kind of line break.
> 
> Your story is showing up as a massive, unreadable block of text as-is.

>> **u/1337_w0n** [+2]  (an hour later)
>> 
>> Fixed. Thank you, I was wondering why that was.

>>> **u/LupoCani** [+3]  (3 hours later)
>>> 
>>> There's also
>>> 
>>> \ 
>>> 
>>> for blank lines showing up as
>>> 
>>>  
>>> 
>>> this.

>>>> **u/1337_w0n** [+1]  (4 hours later)
>>>> 
>>>> Awesome, Used. Thanks.

> **u/thrawnca** [+3]  *Carbon-based biped* (20 hours later)
> 
> > THE END
> 
> But why call that the end? The end of that puddle on the asphalt, yes, but all the water that made up the puddle still exists, and will continue on to do other things.
> 
> In fact, that water has likely existed since the formation of the earth, doing all kinds of things we don't know about, and it will likely continue to do so until the Sun expands to consume the planet.

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