We need a challenge
Take a dart, toss it at the board. Bullseye! Do it again. Bullseye! Again and again and again, always hitting the bullseye. What would you do? Take a step back? Or many, many steps back? Of course. We want a challenge. A game may be fun to win. But if you win every single time, it quickly loses any appeal. I was contemplating the joy of losing yesterday during our family fishing outing. Of course not the joy brought by losing, but the joy losing enables when you do win. And how even in losing, fun can be had if you are with the right people.
The Twilight Zone
On the boat yesterday, I thought of that very old Twilight Zone episode, “A Nice Place to Visit“. The opening narrative:
Portrait of a man at work, the only work he’s ever done, the only work he knows. His name is Henry Francis Valentine, but he calls himself “Rocky”, because that’s the way his life has been – rocky and perilous and uphill at a dead run all the way. He’s tired now, tired of running or wanting, of waiting for the breaks that come to others but never to him, never to Rocky Valentine. A scared, angry little man. He thinks it’s all over now but he’s wrong. For Rocky Valentine, it’s just the beginning.
Rocky wakes up after dying and finds himself in a world where he always wins. At everything. After enjoying the change from his life as a longtime loser, he finally gets tired of the incessant winning. He asks to leave Heaven and go to “the other place”. The devil laugh and says, “This is the other place.”
Not to complain, but every single previous trip with Danel Sportfishing has brought us a plethora of fish. Bite after bite, most successfully reeled in and put in the cooler. Huge king salmon. The occasional fighting Coho. Steelhead and trout. Filling the freezer again. Yesterday’s trip was going to be interesting. Our freezer was already full from the last trip. We brought along our three year old grandson, his eight year old sister, and our son and his wife. A hot and humid afternoon trip. Though cooler on the water and a bit of a breeze. Every trip with Danel Sportfishing had brought so many fish, I was beginning to wonder… is it always this easy? Maybe too easy?
Challenge accepted
This time the fishing was different. Slow. Ringo Starr’s “It Don’t Come Easy” came to mind. Two hours in, and no fish. Only one bite and it was gone in a flash.
Then we watched Captain Dana and Captain Kirk (yes, really!) go to work. We were blessed with two captains yesterday, but the fish weren’t cooperating. The two captains were outwardly unflustered and joking with us. Even with the three year old crying (missing his afternoon nap). The captains calm, yet applying their skills intensely. Reminded me of the old southern saying “ducks on the pond”. The ducks cruising easily over the pond, but underneath, webbed feet were paddling wildly.
The captains came thru. Everyone caught a fish. Exciting to get the first one. And each of the others. Smiles all around. And yet this time, it didn’t come easy. Next time we venture out with Captain Dana, we will remember that winning is not guaranteed. And each fish caught, will be all the sweeter.