Meanderings
One of the things I love about rivers is that they often meander. I love to meander. I especially enjoy following intellectual meanderings…as I do now. When you go fishing, you have no idea what will happen (part of its attractiveness). The same can be said of the meanderings of the mind. So here goes.
I grew up in Rochester, Minnesota, and fished the streams in Southeastern Minnesota in the springtime of my youth. My usual companions were either a retired mail carrier from Kellogg, Minnesota, Walt Canfield, or Rochester’s Municipal Court Judge, Irv Eckolt.
We would fish the Whitewater or the Root River; or one of the many tiny creeks that Walt had discovered in his own worldly meanderings. We fished on sunny days, and in heavy rains. The weather never mattered much to Walt…or, as it turned out, to me. It was fun just being out with those kind souls, to watch the swirling of mysterious waters, and occasionally to catch a lovely spotted trout. I often just watched them fish...seeing how much they enjoyed the angling enterprise…marveling at their artistry with a fly rod.
After graduation from high school and before leaving for college, I spent a glorious summer fishing every day. I kept track of the fish I caught during that idyllic time…254 trout most of which were rainbows and browns. Occasionally I would keep three fish for our delightful neighbors, Russell and Lucy Wilder and Dorothy Day, who loved to eat trout. And when I would camp out overnight, I would keep a fish for my supper. Since I never took food with me, I had to rely on what I could procure (“by hook or crook”). While I usually was fortunate enough to dine on trout, I first tasted frog’s legs at streamside (not in a posh New York restaurant), and, on one occasion when I caught nothing, survived on a meal of water cress (perhaps explaining why I am not fond of it…bitter memories). I guess I succumbed to the belief in the importance of self-reliance at an early age…and tingled to the thrill of testing my “survival skills” in the “wilderness” of Southeastern Minnesota.
My parents were very patient with me, seeming never to worry…even when my meanderings kept me away from home for several days. (Only years later do I recognize how they must have worried, and do I fully appreciate their unstated faith in me)! Sorry for the digression…like choosing to follow a small feeder creek just “to see where it leads.”
Often as I sat beside my campfire in the growing dusk…I reflected about things…about fishing, about life, about what mattered to me as an individual. Only now, decades later, do I realize that even as a youth I was often preoccupied with the notion of values. I think that going fishing is a good way to address the important values question!
I often thought about why I spent so much time alone at streamside rather than going to parties, or doing things that other teenagers did. I guess I just loved my surroundings so much that I didn’t want to spend time in the City where there was, supposedly, “more to do.”
I remember one day on the Root River especially well. I fished for a while, then sat on a tree that had fallen over the river. I sat so long that I felt as though time was standing still…it was as though I was being given a brief glimpse of eternity. It is something I have never forgotten…something I have never told anyone…until now.
In the twilight of my angling career, I find it much more important to go fishing now than ever before; just as I find catching fish much less important. There is so much mystery out there in the rivers, and I want to experience as much of it as I can while I am still able to stand in surging waters.
There are those who would deprecate the importance of angling…who feel it is a silly, perhaps even barbaric, pursuit, but, for me, it has always been central to my life. It has helped me shape my “life values.” Moreover, it has provided me with a lifetime of both enjoyment and inspiration. It once even gave me a glimpse of eternity! All in all, it has been pretty darn important part of my earthly passage. If you get a chance to go meander with a river in the near future…I’d encourage you to take it, for, after all, who knows where it may lead you?