{Tidal Potomac Fly Rodders} Re: Is fishing escapist, or is it the other way?

I'm with you 100% Gene.  I feel like the last year of my life has been a constant struggle to define the right balance between the professional drive side of me and the side of me that spent 100% of my free time as a kid running around in the Maine woods.  If anyone figures out how to manage those two competing things, please do let me know...  Well I guess Thoreau figured it out...

Until then, I'll be sitting at a desk 10 hours a day, dreaming about being on a trail or in a stream somewhere...

On Wednesday, February 27, 2013 10:17:26 AM UTC-5, johnfarr wrote:

I agree--it's not escapist, more like a way to feel more real. I feel more alive when fishing than doing just about anything else although skeet shooting and reading good books comes close. Try to get a copy of "Trout Madness" by Robert Traver (pen name of John Volker) if you can, I think you'd like it.

On Wednesday, February 27, 2013 5:30:35 AM UTC-5, TurbineBlade wrote:

Hey - I woke up super-early and was thinking about something - Do you guys consider fishing an escapist hobby?  I work in an office that is about to be furloughed, and my first thought was "man, I bet I can get in a lot of fishing this spring!" rather than the more obvious response shared by others.  Is this normal?  

Anyway - I'm pretty sure that I hate society at this point.  Well, mostly just 40 hour work weeks, people wearing Express slacks, idle chit-chat, Starbucks, elevator outages, and the little bell-tone followed by step back, doors closing.  All I do is think about where the tide is, if I need to tie leaders/flies, and where I might go fishing on the weekend with Beth.  I think, at least in my mind anyway, that I'm never really "at work" and am thoroughly useless for the most point.  Are you guys like this, or are you "go-getters" at work and "go-getters" on the water as an extension of this attitude?  More power to you if you are -- I'm just not one of those people ;).  

Someone was telling me that fishing is "escapist", apparently implying that typing on a keyboard and staring at a glowing rectangle for 9 hours a day = "reality".  I tend to think that fishing is reality and work is the fantasy, complete with colored sticky notes and "Hey Gene - Damn these pens in the supply room are terrible!  Have you tried these?" He was right though, those pens did suck I admit.  

Anyway - thank God I married a woman who loves to fish!  That's the only chance I have ;).  Maybe I should read something by John Gierach -- I've been told that before.  

Gene

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