If you know me, you know I don’t shy away from things like religion and politics. That would be like a doctor shying away from gaping wounds; a real estate developer shying away from a tract adjacent to a new exit on the interstate; you and me shying away from trout rising to big, splashy bugs.

As I say in a post linked to below,  “Everything is religion, and most things are politics.”

This post is scheduled for the day after Election Day 2024.  At the time of writing, I don’t know what is going to happen. When I hit “publish,” I don’t know who will be headed to the White House in 2025. I don’t even know if we’ll know who that will be by the time this goes live.

But what I do know is that there are some important things that stay constant. Fly fishing has a role in and amongst them, too. And I’ve been writing about that for three major election cycles now.

Below, you can see posts that came out right at the elections of 2016 and 2020. I think they, along with a bonus inclusion, are worth reading.

Click on the image or the title for the full post.

Last Cast of the Week: Election Edition

Tolerance isn’t blind acceptance of anything or everything, either. Tolerance is listening and conversing in a reasonable manner in a way that is reflective of humility and respect.

“But they…!”

Nope. Doesn’t matter. 99 out of 100 people aren’t going to loot your storefront  or spray paint hate-speech on  your fence. They might disagree with impassioned gusto, but what is wrong with that? Might that be said about you as well?

Take that coworker fly fishing.  Invite your neighbor out to the local pond and show him how to cast. Make some time for crazy Uncle Facebook  this Thanksgiving and head to the river for a few hours. Engage them at a level that transcends talking points.

Even After Tomorrow, Trout Will Still Rise

We should take solace in the fact that fish are rising. They don’t need us. We might fail by some subjective or even quantifiable and objective standard, but they’ll keep right on eating bugs.

This is not to say our decisions don’t matter. They do. And they have real repercussions – for our futures and those of our children, neighbors, and even our beloved cold water fishes. When you are right on top of something it looks enormous. The greatest game ever played, the largest deal ever brokered, the most important election of our lifetime. Things matter. But very few decisions will make or break the nature of our existence. Have such scenarios been teased? Of course. The twentieth century was nothing if not a laundry list of potential existential threats. Yet here we, and the trout, are.

Why Fly Fishing Means Something

To be clear, I think that whole “no religion or politics talk” talk is nonsense. Everything is religion, and most things are politics. So know that this online soapbox is a legitimate overflow of my worldview (feel free to tolerate or not… however that word is used today). That said, my strong conviction that you – and everyone else – ought to reckon with two relationships in a way that isn’t casual or laissez-faire. Get right with your people. Get right with your God. More pointedly, the latter then the former.

What in the world does this have to do with fly fishing? Everything. Everything, because fly fishing is part of everything. And everything is connected. Even the most staunch evolutionary materialist must acknowledge that your molecules doing stuff in and amongst the molecules we call a river has  whole lot of impact on… molecules. My contention with that is awfully simple, though. Molecules don’t generate meaning or purpose or passion or love  if rank molecules are all there is.

The greater influences, enriches, and establishes the lesser.