Fish and Fishing

Journey Dateline: July 29, 2007

Are you wondering what FISH and FISHING have to do with Fantasy Art Gifts?

Fishing is a real time sport or hobby with rods, reels, boats, lures, bait and either freshwater or saltwater fish - doesn’t appear to be anything to do with fantasy at all does it? All of that above is quite true … the fantasy comes in with many other things.

The fish tales - ya know - the one that got away - the lust for the perfect boat - ever see a sign looking for a woman with a bass boat & send picture of boat? Or how about the Country Music song by Brad Paisley, “I’m Gonna Miss Her“, that I think of as The Fishing Song where the man is too busy fishing to keep his marriage together and how he is going to miss his wife when he gets home from fishing since she is leaving him if he goes fishing again today … but look - he has a bite!

Disclaimer Note for Clarity: I do like my son-in-law most of the time. Below are my opinions which may or may not be based upon facts, depending on the viewpoint.

My son-in-law LOVES fishing - he and his father enter fishing tournaments together - his Dad makes his living as a guide (his father is also a minister) and his Dad’s fishing boat is a prized possession - the fishing boat gets fixed if something goes wrong no matter what and at a guess - it probably cost a bunch of money - but after all, it’s for FISHING If I understand correctly, they do not like fishing from a bank - it has to be boat fishing - my son-in-law loves deep sea fishing as well as lake boat fishing.

Whether it is true or not, right or wrong - I can see my son-in-law in The Fishing Song - there are times that fishing appears to be much more important to him than anything else in life - perhaps that is just a guy thing - perhaps it is misguided priorities on his part.

Remember though, being fair, I am an outsider looking at the situation (as well as his mother-in-law which makes me subject to prejudice since he’s married to my daughter) but to me, nothing should be more important than being a good man, husband and father for him or anyone else, including that fantasy mania known as fishing and catching the “Big One” or “The One That Got Away“.

As a kid in Iowa, my grandfather was gone a lot since he was an over-the-road truck driver - he was not big into fishing - in fact I cannot ever remember him ever going fishing - perhaps when he was on the farm as a farmer - maybe he went fishing then - I do not know. But, there was a fishing pole at our house with a rod & reel on it, a sinker - I do not remember if it had a hook on it or not. I used to go out in the front yard and practice casting it - it usually made a mess of the fishing line on the reel so I would have to unsnarl & untangle - the fun wore off pretty quickly in having to do all that untangling before I could do any more casting - but the casting itself was fun.

My ex-husband liked to fish too - he took me and the kids a few times to a small local lake to fish off the bank - it was full of little sunfish, anyway, that is what he called them - the kids caught lots of them - they were too little to keep so they all went back into the lake but they enjoyed the catching of the fish - they didn’t have time to get bored and neither did I because we were busy - we were not just sitting there watching a fishing line waiting for it to bob around in the water.

When I first came down to Texas, some friends went fishing off a fishing pier in Galveston - they were busy catching fish - not just standing around watching fishing line in the water - I wasn’t fishing but it was exciting to see them and others around them actually catching fish, plus the fish were much different than the lake fish in Iowa. It was a large pier so I could walk around and people watch a lot too - it was interesting and nice way to spend a couple hours in the sun with friends.

All fishing is not bad to me … just boring if all you are doing is watching fishing line in the water. Another friend in Galveston, his father had a speed boat and he liked to fish in the ocean so he took me out in the boat a couple times - I took books to read to keep me occupied. The water was lovely … the rocking of the boat while just anchored made me sleepy so I went and took a nap in the cabin while he fished so I didn’t find that boring either. I have considered going out on one of the party fishing boats … but I think that would be way too long of being out there trapped on the water with nothing to do .. even if I took my watercolor blocks & watercolor pencils and books to read and my PSP - I think I would get very bored before it would be time to go back to the dock.

Fishing in moderation and not the #1 priority in life keeps fishing in the real world as a fun hobby which is a good thing - it is when it becomes a fantasy that takes over your life and is more important than anything else in life where it can ruin your life that it becomes a bad thing.

All of life is like that - moderation without going overboard is key to keep a healthy balance in your life so you keep your mental health healthy and your relationships healthy too.

My biological mother and her husband, my step-father used to fish for carp, catfish and maybe it was crappie, I think that was the name of the fish … not sure since I was not really interested - it sounded awful - to me - Iowa catfish always tasted like mud as well as being full of bones. It was not something I looked forward to having for dinner - still isn’t.

Today’s first featured art from ImageKind is Fishing at Bures Mill by Michael Bond

Fishing - so many people love it - this is a lovely picture that makes one want to be sitting there looking at the scenery - but for me - all that sitting gets really boring really quickly - you can tell I want to be doing something instead of just sitting there!

But lots of people love just sitting on the bank fishing or sitting in a boat fishing - they find it relaxing and a heavenly opportunity to rest, relax and get in touch with themselves and nature. If you love fishing but cannot go as often as you would like - hanging a fishing picture on your wall can be a relaxing fantasy moment between projects.

Tags: Michael Bond, Fishing at Bures Mill, ImageKind

Today’s second featured art is A Big Catch by Mariana Musa

Now this is a Big One!

Can you imagine anyone believing this fish story if they didn’t see it? … But what a tall tale of a fish tale it would be for a fish story around the evening campfire for the “One That Got Away” or in my mind worse yet - the one that DIDN’T get away!

Tags: Mariana Musa,A Big Catch,ImageKind