Ef fish deh a river bottom an’ tell yuh seh alligator deh deh, believe him

When Someone Who Lives the Reality Gives You a Warning

Imagine you’re standing by a pristine river on a hot summer day, ready to dive into the cool, inviting water. Suddenly, a little fish surfaces and says, “Friend, I wouldn’t go down there if I were you. There’s an alligator resting on the bottom.”

What would you do? Would you thank the fish politely and then jump in anyway, trusting your eyes over his experience? Or would you step back, grateful for the warning from someone who actually lives in that water every day?

This scenario captures the heart of a beautiful Jamaican proverb: “Ef fish deh a river bottom an’ tell yuh seh alligator deh deh, believe him”—When someone who lives at the bottom of the river tells you there’s danger there, listen to them.

At its core, this wisdom teaches us something profound about respect, humility, and survival: the people closest to a situation often see what outsiders miss.

The Voices from the Trenches

In our workplaces, we encounter this truth daily, though we don’t always recognize it. The customer service representative who’s handled hundreds of calls knows which policies frustrate clients most. The warehouse worker understands why certain shipments always arrive damaged. The receptionist can tell you which vendors are reliable and which ones make promises they can’t keep.

These are our workplace “fish”, the people swimming in the daily realities that leadership might only see from the surface.

I’ve watched brilliant executives launch initiatives that failed spectacularly, not because the strategy was wrong, but because they never asked the people who would actually implement it what they thought. They trusted the polished presentation over the voice of experience.

Try this approach: Before making major changes, create space for what I call “wisdom gathering sessions.” Ask the people who live with your decisions daily: “What are you seeing that I might be missing? What could go wrong that we haven’t considered?” You’ll be amazed at how much insight flows from these conversations.

The Household Historians

This wisdom shines especially bright in family settings. How many times have we dismissed the concerns of parents or grandparents, only to discover later that their “old-fashioned” worries were spot-on?

Your grandmother warns you about that shortcut through the neighborhood during certain hours. Your father suggests you get that strange car noise checked before your road trip. Your aunt mentions that the person you’re dating reminds her of someone from her past—and not in a good way.

These aren’t nagging voices or outdated perspectives. These are your family fish, speaking from depths of experience you haven’t yet explored.

Something beautiful to try: Start capturing these family wisdom moments. When someone shares a cautionary tale or offers advice based on their experience, write it down. Create a family wisdom journal. You’ll be surprised how often these insights prove invaluable, and your loved ones will feel honored to have their knowledge valued.

Your Inner Navigator

Sometimes the fish speaking to us is our own intuition. That uncomfortable feeling in your stomach during a job interview. The unease you feel about a financial decision that looks good on paper. The quiet voice that says “something’s not right here” even when everyone else seems comfortable.

We live in a culture that often prioritizes logic over intuition, but the Jamaican wisdom tradition understood something important: your body and spirit often process information faster than your mind. They’re picking up signals, reading currents, sensing dangers that your rational mind hasn’t yet catalogued.

A practice worth developing: When you feel that internal warning system activate, pause. Don’t dismiss it as anxiety or overthinking. Ask yourself: “What information is my intuition processing that my logical mind might be missing?” Often, that uncomfortable feeling is your inner fish trying to tell you about alligators lurking beneath the surface.

The Culture of Deep Listening

In traditional Jamaican communities, this proverb reflected a profound respect for lived experience. Rivers weren’t just beautiful landscapes. They were lifelines where people fished, bathed, washed clothes, and gathered. The person who spent their days in that water knew its moods, its dangers, its gifts.

This wasn’t about hierarchy or formal education. It was about recognizing that the person closest to an experience often holds the most valuable knowledge about it. The fisherman’s warning carried weight not because of his title, but because of his daily intimacy with the water.

In our modern world, we can honor this same principle. The nurse knows things about patient care that the hospital administrator might miss. The teacher understands classroom dynamics in ways the curriculum developer might not. The small business owner in the community can spot economic trends before the analysts do.

When Warnings Become Gifts

The most beautiful thing about this proverb is how it reframes warnings as acts of love. When someone who truly understands a situation takes the time to caution you, they’re offering you a gift: the benefit of their hard-won knowledge.

Think about it: the fish could have simply watched you dive into danger. Instead, they chose to share what they knew, hoping to spare you from harm they’d witnessed before.

This shifts how we receive difficult feedback or cautionary advice. Instead of seeing it as criticism or pessimism, we can recognize it as generosity; someone sharing their experience so we can navigate more safely.

The Invitation to Deeper Wisdom

This proverb isn’t just about avoiding danger—it’s about embracing a more humble, connected way of moving through the world. It invites us to value experience over assumption, to listen more than we speak, to recognize that wisdom often comes from unexpected sources.

The next time someone who lives with the daily reality of a situation offers you insight, remember the fish and the alligator. Their warning might be the very thing that saves you from diving into trouble you couldn’t see from the surface.

After all, calm waters can hide the deepest dangers. But if we listen to those who swim in those depths every day, we can navigate with wisdom instead of just hope.

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Has there ever been a “fish” in your life whose warning saved you from major trouble? Share your story below—we all learn from each other’s moments of wisdom.