Ratherbfishin,

My friends sometimes accuse me of being like that. I don't know why. Like, to them, a half day of fishing is on the shy side of one half of the daylight hours. When I talk to them of "gettin' in a half day," I mean 12 hours - not including the drive. They just don't understand. I have noticed that a few of them won't go with me anymore, especially if I'm driving.

One thing about being on a f*****g quest, which by definition is an activity of overarching importance, is that you don't need to seek, or ask permission for, release from such mundane things as household chores, honeydos, the obligation to house, clothe, and feed your family, and the like. If you ask these things, you aren't on a quest. If you're on a quest, everything else pales in significance. I don't much appreciate a supposedly boon companion interjecting into my f*****g quest that he has to get back and mow the yard, or do this or that around the house. You don't ask for permission to go on a f*****g quest. There's nothing in the legends about Sir Galahad asking for a few days off to go look for some stemware. Do you think Jason thought about who was going to milk the goats while he was off looking for the golden fleece? I don't think so!

Another thing about a f*****g quest, is that you don't bail just because times are tough. People that ask you how you can get up so early after an evening in your cups, stand around in the rain, cold, etc. all day without getting a bite, or a rise, or a strike, stay out after what to them seems an unreasonable time, get no sleep, and then do that again day after day are neither called nor chosen.

The object of a f*****g quest is, again, by definition unattainable. No matter how far along you get, what one chases is an ideal. You may get near it. You may come agonizingly close to it. But, ultimately, it stays just out of reach. Really then, it's about the motivation and the journey. Why we fish is something we can't fully express, but it is as innate as our need to breathe. How we pursue this need, not whether we get our hands around the prize, is the whole story.

[ 04-10-2001: Message edited by: T Dodge ]

[ 04-10-2001: Message edited by: T Dodge ]