My thoughts, as of late, have been orbiting around my son's arrival, which will be any day now--up until November 7th. The 7th will be his birthday, unless he prefers sooner.
With a boy on the way, I've found that I'm a little more sentimental--as far as stuff goes. Hand-me-down type of stuff, like my very first comic book I acquired back in 1978, hanging on the wall of his nursery. (I like comic books. That's the relevancy.) Also, stuff like the fly rod I built when I was a kid. Dad bought me that fly rod for Christmas eons ago, and I fully intend on handing in down to my son.....or daughter. Depends on which one I like better at the time. The fly rod is nice. It's an old Orvis--the first good fly rod that I ever owned. Dad bought me the blank rod and all the thread and hardware, then taught me how to construct it. It was a decent attempt--sloppy by professional standards, but adequate for a 10 year old with few patience and undiagnosed ADD. Took me several attempts stretched over quite a bit of time, but once I got on a roll I finished it and proudly began fishing it. I rarely use it anymore, mainly because the "craftsmanship" didn't really stand up to decades of use and abuse. But that all adds character, and it's still a nice rod. You rarely hear of anyone inheriting a spinning rod or a casting rod. Fly rods are kind of the benchmark of angling tools...artistic, beautiful, hand crafted more times than not, and damn expensive. I've always struggled with trying to explain the difference in fly fishing versus conventional angling (for lack of a better term). I dearly love most every type of angling, but fly fishing is a step above the rest. Yes, there is an art to it. The technique is artistic in itself, along with constructing your own rod, tying your own flies, and the romanticism associated with it. The colors, the solitude, the chess match, the science, the surroundings, and the stealth. Explaining it is always going to sound pretentious. Unless you partake, you probably aren't going to understand it. And if you choose not to partake in fly fishing, then you probably don't give a shit about the difference anyway. Then the other day, a completely random thought hit me. I remembered Obi Wan giving Luke his father's lightsaber right after the Tuscan Raider debacle and explaining what it was and what it meant. You only need to watch up to 0:40--all the rest is just Old Republic, dark times, and lies. "Not as clumsy or random as a blaster..." "An elegant weapon for a more civilized age..." It makes sense now. Lightsabers are fly rods, blasters are spin rods. Yeah, still pretentious. But have you ever heard of anyone inheriting a blaster from their dad? The answer is no. Only lightsabers. In my mind, it makes more sense now after hearing Ol' Ben explain it. He's probably a snobby asshole fly fisherman, but I suppose I can relate a bit. I'll bet Obi Wan started out with a blaster when he was a kid--probably had a lot of fun with it. He'd blast bluegill and crappie and love every minute of it. But in his pursuit of becoming a Knight, he was gifted a lightsaber from his Master and then learned the ways. Yeah, I can relate. I was once a Padawan, then a Jedi Knight, and now I am the Jedi Master. I will hand down my lightsaber to my son, who then will begin the same journey as I........ Or maybe he'll just turn out to be fucking nerd, like me. At any rate, one of my kids is getting an okay fly rod. //re.
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AuthorI am Earl. Archives
May 2024
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