Eventually, all things merge into one, and a river runs through it.
When I was a little kid my Dad would set buckets out in our yard and for family night we would practice casting. Fly fishing was all he ever really wanted to do. (Quote from Norman Maclean, "One great thing about fly fishing is that after a while nothing exists of the world but thoughts about fly fishing.") Every General Conference he sets up his fly tying stuff on the kitchen table and ties flies for two days. He has feathers and materials from all over the place and takes great pride in creating flies that may look strange to the naked eye but when you hold them under water they will look exactly like the fly they are supposed to be. It's crazy how his giant fingers can be so perfect at tying tiny flies and tiny knots. I don't get it.
When I invited my friend Pat to our family's cabin with us he asked if he should bring his fishing license. When I asked my Dad he got so excited. My little brother is not a fisherman in any sense of the word and he was so stoked to have someone who wanted to go. I don't get to watch my Dad fish very often so I quite enjoyed it.
Pat ended up being a natural (like with everything else).
I was at Deseret Industries last week and I found a copy of A River Runs Through It. I love the movie so much and the book is just as wonderful. I feel like I could be a great fly fisherwoman after reading it. It is about more than just fly fishing though. In fact the person who owned it before me marked it up as if it was a Psychology textbook. It made it so interesting to read and now I appreciate the story so much more.
The imagery in the book is so great. I have to write some of it down so I won't forget.
-"When her hair glistened, though, she was worth it. She was one of the most beautiful dancers I have ever seen. She made her partner feel as if he were about to be left behind, or already had been. It is a strange and wonderful and somewhat embarrassing feeling to hold someone in your arms who is trying to detach you from the earth and you aren't good enough to follow her."
-"Yet even in the loneliness of the canyon I knew there were others like me who had brothers they did not understand but wanted to help. We are probably those referred to as "our brothers' keepers," possessed of one of the oldest and possibly one of the most futile and certainly one of the most haunting of instincts. It will not let us go."
-"Many of us probably would be better fisherman if we did not spend so much time watching and waiting for the world to become perfect."
-"One of life's quiet excitements is to stand somewhat apart from yourself and watch yourself softly becoming the author of something beautiful, even if it is only a floating ash."
-"You can love completely without complete understanding."
-"Help," he said, "is giving part of yourself to someone who comes to accept it willingly and needs it badly."
-"Poets talk about "spots of time," but it is really fisherman who experience eternity compressed into a moment."
Thanks Norman Maclean.
Ya'll should read it.
