Friday while at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center, I was standing in line to receive my medications. This is when an old Vietnam Veteran decided to "learn me a lesson or two" on women. The gentleman in a long pleather trench coat with sunglasses on (looking like a model in a 1976 GQ magazine cover page) asked me, "You know son...you have to have the right bait." Obviously I was confused, then he added, "Women are like fish! There are two types, ones that feed off the top of the water and ones that feed off the bottom. See, I can throw a cast net the way I look, and catch all the fish on the top that I want. The fish on the bottom, well, those are the special ones...they only bite specific baits, making them much more hard to catch." I just stood with a smile and listened to the old vet since he obviously had the stage. Then he said, "Those fish on the bottom, well if you don't have the right bait...then you don't catch the fish, simple as that. So son, fish with the right bait and you will catch that fish sure thing." I just thanked him for the information and got my medicine. How funny is that.
Even more funny, while fishing alone today it gave me time to ponder all types of things. Since I have a girlfriend I can tell you it wasn't about what my right bait was. Either way, just this evening I saw about a 7 lb bass just chilling by a log. Man I was excited. So I cast about 15 feet past with my Culprit Trick worm with a yellow tail and reeled in slowly near him to get him to bite...no luck. I did this about 8 times...still he wasn't interested.
So, I decided to change baits, first a plastic crayfish...then a fluorescent trick worm...then a top water jitter bug...then finally a Culprit Moccasin plastic worm, all with no luck. He stayed in the same place by the same log even after all of that casting. Then I just came to the conclusion that you have to have the right bait or you won't catch the fish you want...I should have tried a cast net!
Yup, if you want to make the prize catches, you gotta use the right bait the right way at the right time. Sometimes I wonder how different my life would've been if I'd remembered that lesson... but then it sinks in that all the times I had the wrong bait, or the wrong method, or it was the wrong time... all those mistakes and failures helped teach me how to get it right. I think it was either Will Rogers or Mark Twain who said "Good judgment comes from experience - and a lot of that comes from bad judgment."
ReplyDeleteSo what if I dont wanna be a fish? : ) I'm just sayin I think this metaphor has a few holes in it don't ya think? I for one don't wanna be hooked...on or to anything. I think I'd rather be more like Dori(in nemo). LOL I say this all with a seriously comical smile ofcourse. I love your blogs & look forward to them.
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