Timed edition prints available until 5/21/24 at www.wyliebeckert.com
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A salmon’s journey back to its spawning ground is impossibly long and arduous, but the salmon is single-minded in its devotion to the task. Its body undergoes a drastic transformation to ready it for its final purpose: its color changes, its shape changes, it stops eating. It leaves nothing in reserve for a return journey.
Nevertheless, even when its spawning is complete, the salmon will keep swimming. As its systems slowly shut down, it becomes a "zombie salmon" that continues to swim even as its body biodegrades. It will swim until the river consumes it, becoming sustenance for the ecosystem from whence it came.
This seems like it ought to be a metaphor, but I couldn't say for what.