It's All Good...

What a conundrum we have here. There seems to be something in every human being that has a desire to say “my way or the highway”. This has been known as “Theory X Management” in business circles. We might say things like “live and let live”, but the truth is we spend a whole lot of time judging others.

The recent news regarding the auto industries struggles – the American auto industry that is – made me take a new look at those delightful window stickers with a cartoon character (I think it is Calvin from Calvin and Hobbs – does his mother know about this?) urinating on a competitor’s brand. X*%&@ on Ford, Chevy, Chrysler, etc… You know what I am talking about. You have seen them too. Here is the problem. Chrysler is really Mercedes (Daimler-Chrysler) and Ford and Chevy are loosing money by the millions (almost billions). The latter two have even talked joint venture. Now they are in conversations with European makers regarding selling factories off. I am as bothered as anyone by these developments, but is sure makes you rethink having one of those stickers on your window. We snooze, we lose.

Which brings me to fishing – I love to fly-fish. It is my preferred method. I have some very good friends (and more than a few of them are beloved “rednecks”) that like to spin-fish. We may not admit it, but us fly-fisher-folks like to look slightly down our nose at those spin-casters. Admit it. Oh, we may not have one of those stickers on our car window that says X*%&@ on Spin-fishing, but you can hear the whispers in the shadows. My point - we all benefit from people enjoying the great outdoors, no matter what their method. If Missouri’s conservation program depended on fly fishing only, we wouldn’t have one. If there is an “us” against “them” battle, it is not fly-fishers against spin-fishers, it would be more appropriate to think in terms of those who love the outdoors vs. those who do not. We have neighbors in my community that NEVER (and I mean NEVER!) go places that don’t have concrete and asphalt someplace. They don’t even look up and see the starts. We all need to beat the drum for conservation and preservation of the great outdoors.

Recently, in a message board group for fly fishing, there was a conversation that the group held regarding “what is a purist?” It was pretty interesting stuff. One of the group members came up with a short list of purists: “trout-park purists, wild-trout purists, dry-fly-only purists, Colorado-freestone purists, Current-River-only purists, twelve-pack-with-me-no-matter-what purists, you’re-only-really-fly-fishing-if-your-rod-is-$500-or-more purists, Cortland-combo-kits purists, bamboo-only purists, and there reverse-snob purists (those that totally shun what the masses are doing and think they are in a real special place – ultra-pure, but they have to go out of their way to be that weird). Finally, there are the cross-pollinations of all of these – which by definition would make them impure.” I thought his observations were brilliant, and funny to boot. It got me thinking, albeit randomly.

It is at this point in my reflection, that I must turn to the words of an amazing 10 year old philosopher that lives in our community. Last summer at a little league baseball game that one of my grandkids was in, there was a three way collision at home plate – catcher, runner, and pitcher. The philosopher happened to be pitching that day. He took the brunt of the collision and was almost knocked out. To be sure about it, our team’s player was in the wrong (although it was accidental) and could have really hurt the pitcher. He was able to return to pitching and finish the game. At the end of the battle, the boys lined up to shake hands and our player made it a point to apologize to the pitcher. He felt really bad about it and was almost afraid to approach him. What was the 10 year old philosopher’s response? “It’s all good. It’s all good.” And, he said it with a smile a mile wide. What can we learn from a 10 year old? Lots! You think about that. TL