Winning the Rat Race?

Do you ever find yourself tiring of the rat race? Here is a thought to ponder (albeit and random thought!) – if you win the rat race, you are still a rat. Congratulations! Many of us got into fly fishing to relax and enjoy ourselves in those rare and valuable moments when we carve out time to recreate. I know I did. So, my point this month is to encourage all of you to chill out…relax…slow down…or to quote that great rock band of days gone by, The Eagles, “take it easy”. By the way, did you see that the Eagles are reuniting and recording an album (oops, I meant CD, or digital download, or…I am showing my era)? What goes around comes around…the more things change, the more they stay the same.

If you are worried that the world is passing you by, go ahead and let it. If you will wait one revolution, you will have caught up. Sometimes the insanity of the pace of life can exhaust you. What have you really given up by letting go and setting your own tempo. Not much. Have you given up a television with a flatter screen, a bigger screen, a higher definition, or a better surround sound system? You can have it. Have you given up a bigger house, with a bigger yard, more maintenance, higher property tax bills, and increased insurance payments? You can have that too. Have you given up a high performance vehicle with on board computers, electronic everything, and dealer maintenance fees that feel more like bondage than service? You can even have that. The more stuff you have the more complicated your life gets. In fact, you never own your stuff, your stuff owns you.

So, what can we do about it? You can remember that life is an open road…it is the greatest story never told. It is your journey to define. You can be who you want and you can do what you want. If you don’t like where you are at and who you are, you can redefine yourself. There is no-one to blame but yourself. Take a stand and be who you want to be. That is the beauty of our lives. Each and every day is a new day. You are given a day to take stock and count your blessings. You have a day to make your own list of things to do and then attack them. Or, do nothing at all. Your choice…you decide. Go Zen and take on some good karma.

Last month I talked about some New Year’s resolutions. This month I am making one more resolution…that I will never make another resolution again. So, as I write this column, I am drinking a beer and smoking a cigar in the middle of a Saturday afternoon. Do I have other things to do? Yes. Paint a room, caulk a shower, clean a garage, organize the basement, pay some bills, and on and on and on. But, I am not doing any of them. And, when I get finished with this column and I take that last swig of beer and the final puff on my cigar, I am going to sit down at the tying bench a tie a few flies as I mentally plot my next fishing trip. Yes…the important things in life are what I will be doing.

It is all about your priorities and I am redoing mine as I enter into a new year. Won’t you join me? You think about that. TL