For the People

We live in a time in our country when the views I see presented from various media sources seem to point out the worst individual examples of almost every group of people in our country with a palatable distrust of any and every person regardless of their background, age, economic status, position, race, creed, or favorite flavor of ice cream. Given this inundation of reports of the terrible people we all have become, I wanted to write a blog to thank the wonderful people that we have met and gotten to know along the way in our fishing adventures.

Thinking back, I cannot recall many of the names and stories of so many of those interesting people we met walking the beaches, wading in the water, or going here and there on the island, but there have been several dozen. The topic of fishing often turned the conversation toward more friendly talk about life on the island, learning where these nice folk call home, how long they will be on the island, family etc. People from all over the country including Michigan, Missouri, Arkansas, Kentucky, Connecticut, Alabama, Tennessee to name a few, all with a common interest to some extent around fishing.

Another meeting location that generated a couple of the more personal connections, curiously enough, has been at the Island Chapel. As I am now preaching a weekly message on Sunday morning at 10:00 am (yes, a shameless invitation to visit us sometime), it has been quite interesting that almost every week there is a family which has come interest or connection to fishing. For example, the Carnes men in the caption picture, engaged with Jason in a serious discussion of fishing knots, tides, jigs, and other secret fisherman stuff after dinner at our house. More amazing still is that Stan was actually the High School Fishing coach for the hometown Kentucky school. A fishing team in high school??? Man, where was that when I was in high school? I might have had more playing time in that sport than the few minutes of meaningless, behind by 30 points with 30 seconds to go basketball time I logged my senior year.  Oh yea, I did score two points in one game and got my name in the box score in the Nashville Banner newspaper, so I have that going for me, which is nice…

Teresa, Jason, and I have had the privilege to have families vacationing on the island take time to come to our home for dinner, dessert, coffee, socializing, discussing life and the fun they are having, challenges common to us all, similarities, and differences. Just good people with good hearts, communicating and sharing the basic human need for connection and understanding. It has been such a blessing to meet these people, and to have the truth reinforced that there are indeed great, interesting, and friendly people left in the world.

I have seen the pure joy of a young person under the tutelage of Jason, catching a fish and holding it up for a picture to prove that they did it themselves (of course if there is no picture, it didn’t really happen). No pretense, no judgement, no fear, no ulterior motive. Just clean fun and a connection of effort and accomplishment. Jason sharing his last lure in his bag so the under equipped fisherman has the right lure to catch their first Snook. Spectators politely cheering us on as we caught fish while they watched for entertainment. Some fisherman spectators in the water not far away watching us closely as they caught nothing while we caught fish after fish and then quickly took our spots once we left (all is forgiven for that, because what would you do? I mean really?).

Please do not think I am so naïve or pretend that we have never seen a bad apple around, or been disappointed to watch people violate rules or general good manners (if you are tempted to trespass on someone’s dock without permission, don’t), but what I am saying is that the good far outweighs the bad. One can always find negative things to point out, but if we look for the good in life, and look for the best in people, we will see far more good than bad. Keep an eye out for the good, catch people doing the right things and tell them so, engage with people with the respect that is due every human being, and don’t forget to be NICE. At the end of the day, all you can really control is your attitude and your actions. No one on their deathbed has ever wished they had spent more time being angry and dissatisfied. For those regular, every day people, living lives in peace doing the best they can to make this world a better place, this one’s for you!  Saaaaaaaluuuute! (Queue the Hee Haw Clip).

David