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Thread: THIS SHOULD BE FUN - Neil - January 31, 2011

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  1. #1
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    Default THIS SHOULD BE FUN - Neil - January 31, 2011

    THIS SHOULD BE FUN

    It seems that the world is filled with things that are necessary but that are anything but fun. Some people find a career that they really enjoy, but for many people what they do for a living is just a job and it?s anything but fun. We take up hobbies; pleasant diversions that take our minds off the difficulties of life. Unfortunately, our hobbies often become more stressful than our everyday life, or so it seems by some of things that I read or some of the things I have witnessed.

  2. #2
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    Neil where should I start? From the three guys in a boat that waded the boat through my run in the Box Canyon of the Henry's Fork - while I was standing there fishing it - to the four-letter expletives that erupt as seemingly "normal" speach from many, if not most, who wade all up and down through the water I'm either fishing or working towards fishing - to those guides who block off almost the entire river as you try to float by in order to get to less crowded water downstream, and then curse you for "molesting" their run...

    I love this sport and go out of my way to advocate for it and to help others enjoy it as much as I do, yet, there seems to be an increasingly growing group who feel themselves "entitled" to exhibit whatever behavior they want to as they pursue their day's activities.

    Just look at many of the other flyfishing forum sites out there to see the vulgarity and crudeness of those who advocate to love the sport we all share. I have joined to and then left many of those sites in favor of FAOL. The problem you see on those other sites appears to be spilling out to on-stream experiences, and then many of us must be subjected to a crude diatribe that would make any of their mothers blush and frankly ruins my on-stream experience. Many whom I have approached and asked kindly to desist, have basically launched into a lecture about how if I didn't like it then I could (take your best guess here), and why don't I just leave?!?

    The sad part is that many of these are professionals and/or have some professional grade skills and many of them would be great mentors to those just embracing the sport, but I wouldn't want to leave the care of one of my sons, my wife or a friend in their care.

    When is enough, enough? Whose job is it to remind these fellow anglers that there are others on the stream who may not share their so-called "passion" for doing things the way they do it? I have a lot of fun on the water most of the time. Sure, I try not to let the actions of others dictate my experience on the water, but sometimes its impossible because they are so "in-your-face" about how they feel, what they say and what they do. Yet, I cna have a great day, catch a lot of fish or not, lose some real beasts, or not, and I don't have to utter one curse from my lips in order to do it. I don't have to offer a colorful commentary on how to do this or that or whatever it is the other guy may be doing wrong. I don't feel the need to do it and I don't do it. Self-control, restraint, and just plain, common courtesy go a long way towards allowing all of us to enjoy our days on the water as well as each others company, even if we are strangers.

    A bit more than my $.02 cents worth, but something I'm very passionate about.

    Neil, thanks again for raising this subject. I hope to hear others passionate responses.

    Kelly
    Tight Lines,

    Kelly.

    "There will be days when the fishing is better than one's most optimistic forecast, others when it is far worse. Either is a gain over just staying home."

    Roderick Haig-Brown, "Fisherman's Spring"

  3. #3

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    Both of you hit the nail on the head and I REALLY appreciate it. I don't think I'm a prude, but I sure don't like the language either and I think it lessens the joy of fishing for all. Thanks for saying it.

  4. #4

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    My wife and I teach our kids that using profanity makes your I.Q. level drop considerably....maybe not in truth, but in others' perceptions of you.

    When I was rather young, I caught a nice fish I was proud to show off. I said, "Wow, look at the size of this Bass-Turd (spelling changed, of course)!" I knew Bass were a fish, and I'd heard my Dad call these fish by the name I had just said. I thought that is what the name of the fish was. There was absolutely no ill-will on my part, and I was quite confused to suddenly be in so much trouble....but my Mother immediately fixed my erroneous knowledge!

    Fast forward to early teenage years...during summers, I worked in bean fields and cornfields with a group of slightly older teenagers. I slowly picked up on the language they were using. One day, my older brother made certain "suggestions" that I should desist all use of profanity, and gave some good reasons. I desisted.

    Even now I work with a good mix of folks. A few are a bit rough around the edges and seem to have anger management issues with the sudden curses they throw loudly at their computer monitors in our office space of cubicles. People are who they are...what would I say to change them, and why should I have to say anything? If life hasn't taught them enough creative words to use in lieu of profanity, then anything I would say would doubtless have little affect.

    I know we can be influence by the speech patterns of those around us, but in the end, we each CHOOSE the words we use. Even good people can use bad words, but all should reconsider.
    David Merical
    St. Louis, MO

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    Default Fly fishing is best as a "solitary pasttime"...

    Fly Fishing is best as a "Solitary Pastime, just you, your fly rod & fly line, casting the fly pattern onto the water's surface.

    I am retired, so I can go fly fishing, any where there is open water during the week days, when a majority of the population is at work. Even in the cities there are rivers, streams, creeks, lakes and ponds that are deserted of humans.

    I use to play golf, and I was good at playing the golf course, most golfer's do not play the golf course, they play each other, and there lays the "rub" that cause the "expletive adjectives" being uttered!

    I played baseball, football, and hockey; when I was a boy and then as a young man, and back then if you uttered a "expletive adjective" and the news reached your parents, your backside would be glowing in the dark (you could not sit down for a few days), your mouth would have the taste of the bar of soap that you washed your mouth with!

    Fly Fishing is to relax in the outdoors and to "Carpe Diem" (Seize the Day)...

    Grandfather Henry Washington Albert (my mother's father) use to say, "If you have nothing nice to say, don't say it!" My grandfather left school in 1900 having just finished the 3rd grade and was put to work as a apprentice mason. Working on building St. Paul Central High School, that later in life his two daughters attended. He carried hods of mortar or bricks up the rickety ladders to the bricklayers on the outside of the four story tall high school. Later in life he had his own construction company, and was a 32nd degree Mason (Scottish Rites). The man never used vulgar language!

    I have had my weak moments in life where I have used expletive adjectives, of which I am not proud of..... ~Parnelli
    "Everyone you meet in life, give you happiness! Some by their arrival, others by their departure!" ~Parnelli

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    Quote Originally Posted by FishnDave View Post
    My wife and I teach our kids that using profanity makes your I.Q. level drop considerably....maybe not in truth, but in others' perceptions of you.
    I met a fellow once at a dinner party -( a mountain of a man and a little rough around the edges- first impressions aren't always right)) during the evenings conversation he came out with an expression I will never forget. " Profanity - the attempt of a weak mind trying to express itself forcibly "

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    Another former sailor here, I must admit that my speech can be coarse when I get excited or emphatic about things. But I do not raise my voice when fishing within ear-shot of others.

    I don't care what someone is saying when I'm fishing. Unless they're fishing with me or there is some sort of emergency they are warning me about, I don't want to hear what they are saying from across the water. I think this is the real issue. Let me explain.

    It's about space and the invasion of it. It's about the lack of respect of another's right to use the same space you are and enjoy themselves too. It's about courtesy. It's about manners. It's about good sportsmanship.

    All of these things I mentioned above are rapidly becoming extinct in our culture. We live in a neo-barbaric age brought about by the popularity of vulgar music, films and TV that mostly seem to celebrate and explore excess and mayhem, a video gaming culture that does the same and simultaneously isolates the players from social interaction, and a whole generation of parents and teachers and coaches and religious leaders who have abdicated their moral responsibility to lead...both my example and through proper training and discipline. You can sum up contemporary American culture with two words: Self-obsession and Excess.

    My father taught all six of us (and repetition is the mother of learning!) that our rights stopped where another's began. And he would amplify that with a follow-up question: where do other people's rights actually begin? We'd think about it as youngsters when he first began this lesson with us and eventually admit that we didn't really know. He'd put his finger on our noses and say, "Right there. Your rights end at the tip of your nose and the tips of your fingers, because someone else's rights are going to start pretty close to there." And then he would give some examples. Your example of the stream incident is very similar to the ones he would use: inconsiderate behavior robbing others of their peaceful enjoyment, cutting in line in front of others, cheating on a test others had studied hard for, running a red light in a car and perhaps causing an accident, etc.

    Most parents stopped engaging in this sort of aggressive program of individualized moral instruction of their children a long time ago. My parents had a system and followed it through the rearing of six kids over a period of 40 years. They also had an academic set of priorities for each of their kids and supplemented anything lacking in the public schools. And they had a set of goals and objectives for the athletic and arts and cultural rearing of their kids, too. They dedicated their lives to this.

    My dad passed on an offer to become an NFL referee...a dream job for him...because it would have kept him away from us much of the year for 4 days/week, including the weekends when we were out of school. It would have paid much better and been a lot of fun for him. It would have gotten him away from a career he didn't enjoy. But it would have violated his priorities and values. He was a man of principles, ethics, and self-discipline. I suspect that most men like him died on the battlefields of WW2, but he survived. Otherwise, I cannot explain how such a big chunk of the Baby Boom generation turned out to be such a bunch of self-absorbed, over-indulged pansies with a raging sense of entitlement. And the generation that they (failed to) raise are a bunch of young folks with good hearts and amazing talents, but have almost zero social skills.

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    Quote Originally Posted by gmac209 View Post
    " Profanity - the attempt of a weak mind trying to express itself forcibly "
    I like that. The quote I picked up years ago is similar; "Profanity is a crutch for the inarticulate."

    I wish I could say that I never let profanity leave my mouth, but I can't. I can work on it, though, and I do.
    A right emblem it may be, of the uncertain things of this world; that when men have sold them selves for them, they vanish into smoke. ~ William Bradford
    I finally realized that Life is a metaphor for Fly Fishing.

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    Speaking as an old ex navy hand.
    One that still unfortunately swears like a sailor...

    It's not so much the profanity that bothers me as it is the attitude and rudeness.
    I'd much rather be around someone with a mouth in need of soap, than a clean spoken person that is just plain rude and inconsiderate.

    Which would you prefer?
    A fisherman upstream saying "Holy #@$@ did you see the size of that...."
    OR
    A fisherman upstream that says nothing but crowds you out, and scares the fish in your area away when he comes to fish your area, because YOU seem to have found where all the fish are.

    Give me a dirty mouth and a polite person over the opposite any day.

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