Fish of a Lifetime

"...It's well known that in the room
or in the woods
or in the hut in the fishermen's district
or in the crackling canefields
there is a very unusual silence,
a moment as solemn as wood,
and a woman gets ready to give birth.

It's well known that we were born....."

-from Pablo Neruda, Births

I'm not sure when fishing became an obsession or even if it is one. But I know I loved it then, and I know what it means to me now. It may have started thirty one years ago today in a bright but solemn room.

God said, "Let him love fishing, then give him Katie so he can know what love really is. Then give him Sophia to teach him that love is a voluntary, joyous sacrifice. Then let him go fishing again and watch what happens."

Fishing for me has become a means to an end.