Secret to Inspiration

[David, aka, "McScruff"]

I've learned that the the trick to being earnest is to give up wanting it so badly. This paradox has always intrigued me... and I guess I'm not alone.

My fishing "Guru of the Moment" is Cliff Hauptman, and he candidly applies it this way - -

"For me one of the greatest joys of fishing is the kick I get from it's irony: Fishing allows a serious angler to entirely clear his mind of interfering matters of consequence. He may then focus all his concentration, all his physical, mental, and emotional energies on a problem whose ultimate solution has no importance whatsoever."

The Secret, then, is to work hard at something that doesn't matter? I love it!

[Greg McWilliams]

David, From a Biblical stand point, God created the earth, land and water!!!!! 1/3 land and 2/3 water!!!

Take it to the next level Therefore we should fish twice as much as we work!!!!!!!

Ok, That is as religious as I am going to get!!!!!!!!! I apologize if I offended anybody!!!!!

[Leo Nguyen]

LOL Great method of attack there Greg.

 

David, you have to understand, what we're working hard to achieve, which ultimately end up with no great importance what so ever, doesn't mean it has no meaning of any sort. We work hard to increase efficiency, to increase comprehension, and of course, achieve new possibilities. To us, in pursuing such goal, we deem we have not gain any significant. However, to everyone around us, they see something different. Think about it for the moment. Man had strive to make transportation faster to deliver the goods before day ends, or before foods get spoiled. From hand pushed cart, to horse carriage, then man powered bi/tricycles, ultimately to the first Model T. Man didn't want 4 wheels, which take up space, so, he condensed it to the 2 wheels, as well as 1 wheel version. To him, it's just having fun to make things more unique and creative. To others, it opened a new spectrum of sports, adventure, and a new height of being the "Jack Ass" idiot.

 

[David, aka, "McScruff"]

Yeah Leo I would have worded it a little differently, had I written it. Since I was quoting, I had to keep it literal, i.e., in the authors own words. I can see where catching a fish might be of great consequence at some point. I once was stranded in the mountains of AZ. Rescue was days, or even weeks away, as far as I knew. All I had to eat was the fish I caught in the mountain streams. Believe me, fishing took on a great importance.

I recall that Herbert Hoover, former President of the United States, was also an avid angler. He is famous for noting that all of our worries, concerns and striving are nothing to fishes. When a fish looks up at us, he knows nothing of the tempest that is our life.

In sport angling (as opposed to subsistence fishing) it isn't the catching so much as the doing that matters. We are feeding our souls and our very characters, moreso than our stomachs.

"All men are equal before fish.

Fishing is much more than fish. It is the great occasion when we may return to the fine simplicity of our forefathers.

There are only two occasions when Americans respect privacy... Those are prayer and fishing." - - Herbert Hoover

He also said, "No public man can be just a little crooked..." but that is for another forum.

[David, aka, "McScruff"]

Fish twice as much as we work - I like it!

Thanks, Greg.

Does thinking about fishing, while working... does that count?

[Vic Tankersley]

Greg, May i go just a little farther and add that Jesus went down to the sea and gathered fisherman for his diciples as well as others. He was in the storm in a boat and calmed the seas. He told Peter and James how to cast their nets and caught great numbers of fishes (maybe Bluegill) and then cooked them a great shore breakfast..Wow, this is good stuff

[David, aka, "McScruff"]

Thanks Vic.

See, Jesus knew, too, what fishing gives us. Certainly, it provides a means to feed our bodies - that is obvious. But it also tempers our Grace... in the teeming fish, caught up in a net, we see ourselves. In a very real way, fishing is a path to God.

BTW as far as we know the fish Peter and James caught were tilapia. To this day they are also known as "Saint Peters" fish.