Thank you Matt- loved this, as both a pastor and a very beginning fly-fisherman. Wonder if you are a David James Duncan fan? Different politics I imagine, but The Brothers K and The River Why are favorite books of mine. Thank you for blessing us with your gift.
Thanks, Jeremy. Really appreciate it. I have had the Brothers K on my to-do list for years. But I love me some River Why. A great book, I agree. In fact, I just picked up an essay collection of Duncan's called "My Story As Told By Water," which I'm looking forward to.
Yessir. Good song. I like those Rick Rubin/American Recordings of Johnny Cash, even if I'm not a Nine Inch Nails fan. They were honest- even painful at times. I've listened to them often.
And, my copy of “Riverman” just arrived from Amazon. Did not place at bottom of To Be Read stack, but on top - next up! Read the prologue and it was almost enough to make me set aside current read and dive right in. See what you’ve done, Matt?
"I make myself catch more than 1,000 fish on a fly rod every year...."
Oh no no no no....
I invest a lot of energy in avoiding knowledge of the count.
True, Jesus' own (recovering) fishermen put a number on one important catch—153 fish—but I think that was about something entirely different—including, perhaps, a prank on them https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/153_(number).
Look, you got paid to be a trout bum for a season. Amazing. Enviable. As a fly fisher, you got paid to be good.
I am neither a fisherman nor a believer, but your writing is always captivating. The references you make in your essays always make me think of times passed. There was a time when the shad ran in the Delaware River, and my father always looked forward to eating shad row. I don't know if they are back, but you certainly know - so let us know.
I'm afraid I have to disagree with one of your followers about not being angry with your past overlords. It shouldn't consume your life, but the anger can be used constructively to help you over the downtimes. Passivity lets the active ones win - not always a bad thing, but usually, it isn't so good.
Also, I'm afraid I have to disagree with the idea of not participating in the dialogue. By being silent, you tacitly agree with the hate being pushed in so many ways. It is a game, just as war is a game. The main difference is that the losing side in a war winds up in a worse position than the winning side. The culture wars are only a cover for the true aims of certain participants - namely, the overthrow of our democracy.
To get off my soapbox for a few minutes - what are your thoughts on the bird flu epidemic? I have read where we are advised not to have bird feeders, birdbaths, or any other device to encourage birds to associate in groups. I have a bird feeder, and my wife, myself, and my two cats love watching the action at the feeder. Additionally, several squirrels and my neighbor's two chickens are frequent visitors.
I will appreciate any advice you can give me. I would imagine that many of your other readers would have similar concerns. My father always warned me about the dangers of sunlight, so the closest I come to the outdoors is sitting near an open window at a bar.
Thanks for believing in anger, Edward. It doesn't consume my life. But a little bit of righteous anger is not a bad thing. And to push back a little, by pointing out the bankruptcy of both sides, I'm not "not participating in the dialogue." I am very much participating in the dialogue by pointing out false choices.
To answer your other question, I hate bird flu epidemics, like all epidemics. But I still fill my feeders, and haven't noticed any birds dropping dead as a result. Starvation will hurt them more than any epidemic will. So we take our chances.....
And your dad is probably a great guy. But don't believe the hype about the dangers of sunlight. Vitamin D is our friend. Yes, it can hurt us, like all good things can when taken to extremes. But generally? Get outside, even if you do so with sunscreen. It is a mood/spirit lifter. Which is a very important healthy benefit.
I agree about the bankruptcy of both sides. The so-called conservatives have a plan in place to win elections. Mr. Biden is reaching across the aisle to people who will not negotiate. Most of our elections involve voting for the lesser of two evils. For various reasons, Mr. Biden has renigged on several campaign promises - sometimes because of political expediency and sometimes because some of his own party's members blocked his proposals. Our country's ideals and its very democracy are in peril. The slow drip of water will wear away the hardest rock. People masquerading as conservative politicians have been quietly wearing away our democracy. Meantime the media is concerned with one millionaire slapping another millionaire. Our educational system is under attack, our ability to vote is under attack, and our relations with other countries were under attack during Trump's time in office. Policy differences are one thing - destroying democracy is another thing altogether. Public discourse has reached the level of a bar room shouting match - all of which distracts from the real threats taking place. I'm disgusted by the media not calling out the dangers we all face. But cheer up, baseball season is just starting, and we concentrate on another bright bubble to distract us from actually thinking.
Great writing as always. BTW I got a copy of your book. Just finished the Kinky Friedman piece. PSA: if you have not read his book, you should.
What I have noticed is a common thread. You still have a lot of pent up anger at the masters when they shuttered The Weekly Standard.. Let it go Matt. You are far better than that. We here are better off that it happened. Because of it we are all here today. So I say thank you to those that brought you to this point.
Your sensitive side "your birds, the fish you release etc....a direct gene pool passage from the one and only Hallie. She saw the beauty in everything. That my friend is something to always fall back on when the clouds appear.
As I have said not a fisherman, but the way you always describe your travails I am right there wearing my mankini and hip waders. Honestly with so few words you put me right there in the water or on the rowboat. I always come away a happier and better person when I read what you put here. Thanks.
Thanks, but that was a three-year-old piece. The injury was still fresh at the time. So they deserved whatever abuses I doled out on them. And a lot more, actually. They ruined a great thing. But I don't still haul that anger around. Because who cares? I don't. Their sites are sinking, because they have no soul. So they are getting their just desserts. And the rest of us move on....
Thanks for another beautiful piece of writing, Matt. If the guy who wrote Job was a fisherman, he’d probably sound like you. My wife and I went down a Levon Helm rabbit hole this winter after watching The Shooter on New Year’s Eve. I don’t know if you know it, and one needs to be able to not mind Mark Wahlberg to enjoy watching it, (one of my superpowers is the ability to sit through one of his films-the other is a great Kermit the Frog voice-I can make him say the most inappropriate things)
In any event, Levon Helm owns part of the film as a elderly, almost blind, ballistics expert that Mark and sidekick travel to Tennessee (I think) to help track down the baddies trying to do them in. He was only a couple of years away from his death when he made it, but his portrayal of a crazy old conspiracy theorist who is probably right, just steals the film. I’d also recommend Once We Were Brothers, which is a documentary that Robbie Robertson made in 2019. It manages to be both inspiring and heartbreaking.
Don't know the shooter, Jamie - will have to watch it. But I do know ONce We Were Brothers very well. And I must say - sacrilege to Levon fans - that I always thought Robbie Robertson god a bum deal on the PR end. If it weren't for him, The Band wouldn't have made it to half their gigs or recording sessions. Everyone needs an organizer in their life. We cant' all be irresponsible drug'n'drink addicts. And Robertson was that for The Band. Which is probably why we still talk about them to this days. Levon's resentments notwithstanding.
If you do happen to watch it, I’d love to hear your opinions about the film. Very much in the Jason Bourne school of “noble loner killing machine, beaten but not bowed, with plenty of shootin’ chasin’ blowin up stuff”. I don’t think that the whole thing is on YouTube, but Levon’s scene definitely is.
We had a pair of mourning doves nesting in a planter on a shelf by the back door. There were two eggs in the nest. About a week ago, the local red-tailed hawk got the parent in the nest and the eggs. Since then, the one who was out foraging at the time of the attack comes in every evening and sits alone on the power line behind the house. It is heart-wrenching.
That's a real heartbreaker, David. I'm sorry. I love mourning doves, too They make such beautiful sounds. What a haunting image you paint of the solitary widower.
Yeah. He got the third brood of a family of robins last Summer, after the four eggs had hatched. And I’m pretty sure he got both momma and daddy robin in the process. When we’re sitting in the backyard in the evenings, and the hawk shows up, my Pyrenees will keep one eye on that thieving jerk the entire time. The Cycle of Life is a cruel mistress.
Well, the important thing is that you have a Great Pyrenees. (So do we.) They ought to just change their names to Greatest Pyrenees. They're such fantastic dogs. Along with Bernese Mountain Dogs (which we had before him), I consider them the supermodels of dogs. Handsome, majestic, and good watchdogs besides, while not being overly aggressive to harmless people or creatures.
We enjoy the Slack Tide deep cuts when Toby and I are in the backyard for our daily “Barking Time,” a tradition he’s founded since we’ve been home during the pandemic.
Technically, he’s part Lab, but I refuse to call him a Pyrador or a Labranees. Either way, he loves to swim and herd, is always vigilant, protects his momma and his boy, and is my best buddy. Can’t think of a finer, more noble animal. And when he’s offended, he throws back his head in Gallic defiance, becoming the spitting image of General de Gaulle.
Even worse, mourning doves mate for life, I believe. It all adds meaning to their name, I suppose. Nature really is "red in tooth and claw," as Tennyson wrote.
I'm intrigued that being a voyeur into the bluebird nest does not scare the adults off to abandon the eggs/hatchlings. Not sure that works with every breed?
We have a couple of garden variety feeders but seem to notice far fewer birds as the years progress. The cardinal pair - who knows what generation - persists, preferring to dine when they have the place to themselves.
I think they way overstate those numbers, perhaps basing them off clumsy fisherman. I fish ponds all the time where I catch and release and come back the next day and many days after, and see no dead fish. You'd think I would. But I don't dispute that we take their lives in our hands when we hook them. All the more reason to be very careful.
Love this post, Matt! Two responses came to mind as I read. First, I place Paul's admonition in Philippians with two other New Testament passages on giving the best information for living a blessed life: The Sermon on the Mount in Matthew (Eugene Peterson gives excellent explanation of this in his book, As Kingfishers Catch Fire, "Jesus Went Up the Mountain")and the fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5. Second, I totally get your obsession with the bluebirds. One of the few perks that came from the Covid lockdown was that I purchased two bird feeders. I placed one outside my kitchen window and the other outside my "study" window. While I welcome all birds, the thrill of glancing up and seeing a cardinal perched on one of the feeders never grows old.
One more thing, I love reading the comments almost--and I do mean almost--as much as your posts. Yours is one of the few places on the internet where I feel people (most of the time) express varying opinions without the intent of stirring up a hornet's nest.
That's a big compliment about the comments section here, Dee Dee - and I feel the same way. A pleasant surprise. And I love me some Eugene Peterson, for what it's worth. He was a great writer, RIP.
In the spring of 2020, when we were spending more time at home than we ever had, we had a nest of robins next to our driveway. The eggs were first discovered on Easter Day and we checked that nest multiple times a day and watched mama like we had never watched a bird before. Had we seen, nests, eggs, and hatchlings before? Yes, but these felt different. We documented every stage and when they became fledglings, we had to find a new way to take our dog outside, because I wasn’t taking any chances with those babies. There was something about those birds that made all of us pay attention in new ways. I loved the bluebird update, and have a similar picture of our robins. I think new life brings out the best in us.
I note M Trosino responded beautifully to this. Thanks M. And, as things are in my world in the morning, I was overrun by a pack of dogs while reading on my couch. A Rottie, Aussie and Mutt. All very excited to show me by the dirt on their faces and burrs in their furs what they had been doing recently. Slobbery kisses, dog pantings in the face and just general wigglemania exactly where I am sitting. This requires my undivided attention. Entirely the point I am sure. We are here to ease your pain, your misery, your feelings of nearby doom so do not ignore us. Dive into this fur and slobberfest and get lost for a few moments. Your life will be better for it. They are right, of course, so I unfailing do. Not exactly like fly fishing but it does happen numerous times per day. Ah, where was I in this article. . .
Thank you Matt- loved this, as both a pastor and a very beginning fly-fisherman. Wonder if you are a David James Duncan fan? Different politics I imagine, but The Brothers K and The River Why are favorite books of mine. Thank you for blessing us with your gift.
Thanks, Jeremy. Really appreciate it. I have had the Brothers K on my to-do list for years. But I love me some River Why. A great book, I agree. In fact, I just picked up an essay collection of Duncan's called "My Story As Told By Water," which I'm looking forward to.
Tiffany box colored birds and Levon - twice! Lovely squared. Thank you.
That second Levon Helm video reminds me of Johnny Cash singing his cover of Nine Inch Nails' "Hurt": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8AHCfZTRGiI
In both cases, we know what's coming for both men, and we're helpless to stop it. And still we watch.
Yessir. Good song. I like those Rick Rubin/American Recordings of Johnny Cash, even if I'm not a Nine Inch Nails fan. They were honest- even painful at times. I've listened to them often.
And, my copy of “Riverman” just arrived from Amazon. Did not place at bottom of To Be Read stack, but on top - next up! Read the prologue and it was almost enough to make me set aside current read and dive right in. See what you’ve done, Matt?
My bluebird house this AM!
https://1drv.ms/u/s!AteWRZQW3HIhgcw8vnkF6Gx7ZW9_Jw
Those are some beauties. Great critters. Congratulations, Bob.
"I make myself catch more than 1,000 fish on a fly rod every year...."
Oh no no no no....
I invest a lot of energy in avoiding knowledge of the count.
True, Jesus' own (recovering) fishermen put a number on one important catch—153 fish—but I think that was about something entirely different—including, perhaps, a prank on them https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/153_(number).
Look, you got paid to be a trout bum for a season. Amazing. Enviable. As a fly fisher, you got paid to be good.
But now you can be good for nothing.
So just enjoy. Don't count.
You need to read more of SLack Tide. I've explained this. Fish counting is involuntary. It's just something that has to happen: https://mattlabash.substack.com/p/fish-syphus?s=w
I am neither a fisherman nor a believer, but your writing is always captivating. The references you make in your essays always make me think of times passed. There was a time when the shad ran in the Delaware River, and my father always looked forward to eating shad row. I don't know if they are back, but you certainly know - so let us know.
I'm afraid I have to disagree with one of your followers about not being angry with your past overlords. It shouldn't consume your life, but the anger can be used constructively to help you over the downtimes. Passivity lets the active ones win - not always a bad thing, but usually, it isn't so good.
Also, I'm afraid I have to disagree with the idea of not participating in the dialogue. By being silent, you tacitly agree with the hate being pushed in so many ways. It is a game, just as war is a game. The main difference is that the losing side in a war winds up in a worse position than the winning side. The culture wars are only a cover for the true aims of certain participants - namely, the overthrow of our democracy.
To get off my soapbox for a few minutes - what are your thoughts on the bird flu epidemic? I have read where we are advised not to have bird feeders, birdbaths, or any other device to encourage birds to associate in groups. I have a bird feeder, and my wife, myself, and my two cats love watching the action at the feeder. Additionally, several squirrels and my neighbor's two chickens are frequent visitors.
I will appreciate any advice you can give me. I would imagine that many of your other readers would have similar concerns. My father always warned me about the dangers of sunlight, so the closest I come to the outdoors is sitting near an open window at a bar.
Thanks for believing in anger, Edward. It doesn't consume my life. But a little bit of righteous anger is not a bad thing. And to push back a little, by pointing out the bankruptcy of both sides, I'm not "not participating in the dialogue." I am very much participating in the dialogue by pointing out false choices.
To answer your other question, I hate bird flu epidemics, like all epidemics. But I still fill my feeders, and haven't noticed any birds dropping dead as a result. Starvation will hurt them more than any epidemic will. So we take our chances.....
And your dad is probably a great guy. But don't believe the hype about the dangers of sunlight. Vitamin D is our friend. Yes, it can hurt us, like all good things can when taken to extremes. But generally? Get outside, even if you do so with sunscreen. It is a mood/spirit lifter. Which is a very important healthy benefit.
I agree about the bankruptcy of both sides. The so-called conservatives have a plan in place to win elections. Mr. Biden is reaching across the aisle to people who will not negotiate. Most of our elections involve voting for the lesser of two evils. For various reasons, Mr. Biden has renigged on several campaign promises - sometimes because of political expediency and sometimes because some of his own party's members blocked his proposals. Our country's ideals and its very democracy are in peril. The slow drip of water will wear away the hardest rock. People masquerading as conservative politicians have been quietly wearing away our democracy. Meantime the media is concerned with one millionaire slapping another millionaire. Our educational system is under attack, our ability to vote is under attack, and our relations with other countries were under attack during Trump's time in office. Policy differences are one thing - destroying democracy is another thing altogether. Public discourse has reached the level of a bar room shouting match - all of which distracts from the real threats taking place. I'm disgusted by the media not calling out the dangers we all face. But cheer up, baseball season is just starting, and we concentrate on another bright bubble to distract us from actually thinking.
Great writing as always. BTW I got a copy of your book. Just finished the Kinky Friedman piece. PSA: if you have not read his book, you should.
What I have noticed is a common thread. You still have a lot of pent up anger at the masters when they shuttered The Weekly Standard.. Let it go Matt. You are far better than that. We here are better off that it happened. Because of it we are all here today. So I say thank you to those that brought you to this point.
Your sensitive side "your birds, the fish you release etc....a direct gene pool passage from the one and only Hallie. She saw the beauty in everything. That my friend is something to always fall back on when the clouds appear.
As I have said not a fisherman, but the way you always describe your travails I am right there wearing my mankini and hip waders. Honestly with so few words you put me right there in the water or on the rowboat. I always come away a happier and better person when I read what you put here. Thanks.
Thanks, but that was a three-year-old piece. The injury was still fresh at the time. So they deserved whatever abuses I doled out on them. And a lot more, actually. They ruined a great thing. But I don't still haul that anger around. Because who cares? I don't. Their sites are sinking, because they have no soul. So they are getting their just desserts. And the rest of us move on....
Yep at that time they needed a building to fall onto their heads.
Thanks for another beautiful piece of writing, Matt. If the guy who wrote Job was a fisherman, he’d probably sound like you. My wife and I went down a Levon Helm rabbit hole this winter after watching The Shooter on New Year’s Eve. I don’t know if you know it, and one needs to be able to not mind Mark Wahlberg to enjoy watching it, (one of my superpowers is the ability to sit through one of his films-the other is a great Kermit the Frog voice-I can make him say the most inappropriate things)
In any event, Levon Helm owns part of the film as a elderly, almost blind, ballistics expert that Mark and sidekick travel to Tennessee (I think) to help track down the baddies trying to do them in. He was only a couple of years away from his death when he made it, but his portrayal of a crazy old conspiracy theorist who is probably right, just steals the film. I’d also recommend Once We Were Brothers, which is a documentary that Robbie Robertson made in 2019. It manages to be both inspiring and heartbreaking.
Don't know the shooter, Jamie - will have to watch it. But I do know ONce We Were Brothers very well. And I must say - sacrilege to Levon fans - that I always thought Robbie Robertson god a bum deal on the PR end. If it weren't for him, The Band wouldn't have made it to half their gigs or recording sessions. Everyone needs an organizer in their life. We cant' all be irresponsible drug'n'drink addicts. And Robertson was that for The Band. Which is probably why we still talk about them to this days. Levon's resentments notwithstanding.
If you do happen to watch it, I’d love to hear your opinions about the film. Very much in the Jason Bourne school of “noble loner killing machine, beaten but not bowed, with plenty of shootin’ chasin’ blowin up stuff”. I don’t think that the whole thing is on YouTube, but Levon’s scene definitely is.
We had a pair of mourning doves nesting in a planter on a shelf by the back door. There were two eggs in the nest. About a week ago, the local red-tailed hawk got the parent in the nest and the eggs. Since then, the one who was out foraging at the time of the attack comes in every evening and sits alone on the power line behind the house. It is heart-wrenching.
That's a real heartbreaker, David. I'm sorry. I love mourning doves, too They make such beautiful sounds. What a haunting image you paint of the solitary widower.
Yeah. He got the third brood of a family of robins last Summer, after the four eggs had hatched. And I’m pretty sure he got both momma and daddy robin in the process. When we’re sitting in the backyard in the evenings, and the hawk shows up, my Pyrenees will keep one eye on that thieving jerk the entire time. The Cycle of Life is a cruel mistress.
Well, the important thing is that you have a Great Pyrenees. (So do we.) They ought to just change their names to Greatest Pyrenees. They're such fantastic dogs. Along with Bernese Mountain Dogs (which we had before him), I consider them the supermodels of dogs. Handsome, majestic, and good watchdogs besides, while not being overly aggressive to harmless people or creatures.
We enjoy the Slack Tide deep cuts when Toby and I are in the backyard for our daily “Barking Time,” a tradition he’s founded since we’ve been home during the pandemic.
Technically, he’s part Lab, but I refuse to call him a Pyrador or a Labranees. Either way, he loves to swim and herd, is always vigilant, protects his momma and his boy, and is my best buddy. Can’t think of a finer, more noble animal. And when he’s offended, he throws back his head in Gallic defiance, becoming the spitting image of General de Gaulle.
Even worse, mourning doves mate for life, I believe. It all adds meaning to their name, I suppose. Nature really is "red in tooth and claw," as Tennyson wrote.
Thanks, Matt....I'm an idiot. Had bird on da brain and, well, enough of me....I very much admire you fly angler artists. No bull. Thanks again.
I'm intrigued that being a voyeur into the bluebird nest does not scare the adults off to abandon the eggs/hatchlings. Not sure that works with every breed?
We have a couple of garden variety feeders but seem to notice far fewer birds as the years progress. The cardinal pair - who knows what generation - persists, preferring to dine when they have the place to themselves.
Love me some cardinals.
I have read that many fish die even after you wet your hand to pick them up to unhook.
I think they way overstate those numbers, perhaps basing them off clumsy fisherman. I fish ponds all the time where I catch and release and come back the next day and many days after, and see no dead fish. You'd think I would. But I don't dispute that we take their lives in our hands when we hook them. All the more reason to be very careful.
Thanks for responding. Don't fish anymore but know guys who do and are strictly catch and release.
Love this post, Matt! Two responses came to mind as I read. First, I place Paul's admonition in Philippians with two other New Testament passages on giving the best information for living a blessed life: The Sermon on the Mount in Matthew (Eugene Peterson gives excellent explanation of this in his book, As Kingfishers Catch Fire, "Jesus Went Up the Mountain")and the fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5. Second, I totally get your obsession with the bluebirds. One of the few perks that came from the Covid lockdown was that I purchased two bird feeders. I placed one outside my kitchen window and the other outside my "study" window. While I welcome all birds, the thrill of glancing up and seeing a cardinal perched on one of the feeders never grows old.
One more thing, I love reading the comments almost--and I do mean almost--as much as your posts. Yours is one of the few places on the internet where I feel people (most of the time) express varying opinions without the intent of stirring up a hornet's nest.
That's a big compliment about the comments section here, Dee Dee - and I feel the same way. A pleasant surprise. And I love me some Eugene Peterson, for what it's worth. He was a great writer, RIP.
In the spring of 2020, when we were spending more time at home than we ever had, we had a nest of robins next to our driveway. The eggs were first discovered on Easter Day and we checked that nest multiple times a day and watched mama like we had never watched a bird before. Had we seen, nests, eggs, and hatchlings before? Yes, but these felt different. We documented every stage and when they became fledglings, we had to find a new way to take our dog outside, because I wasn’t taking any chances with those babies. There was something about those birds that made all of us pay attention in new ways. I loved the bluebird update, and have a similar picture of our robins. I think new life brings out the best in us.
I note M Trosino responded beautifully to this. Thanks M. And, as things are in my world in the morning, I was overrun by a pack of dogs while reading on my couch. A Rottie, Aussie and Mutt. All very excited to show me by the dirt on their faces and burrs in their furs what they had been doing recently. Slobbery kisses, dog pantings in the face and just general wigglemania exactly where I am sitting. This requires my undivided attention. Entirely the point I am sure. We are here to ease your pain, your misery, your feelings of nearby doom so do not ignore us. Dive into this fur and slobberfest and get lost for a few moments. Your life will be better for it. They are right, of course, so I unfailing do. Not exactly like fly fishing but it does happen numerous times per day. Ah, where was I in this article. . .