I have been fully chastised for not blogging lately. If you'll notice, yesterday's post came almost a month after the one before. I suppose I should be sentenced to watching hours of the latest Geico commercials as punishment. (No offense, Snoopy! To each his own. No, I didn't see the Superbowl commercial, but you made me wish I had!)
Of course, the latest Geico caveman commercial is funny. The one where he's walking through the airport and is so obviously wounded at the picture of the Geico caveman on the wall. And I like the Larry King type interviews with the gekko.
I think I've been watching too much television.

A Fishing Story: Or a Lesson in Patience

Once when I was about ten years old, I went fishing on my grandparents' pond with several of my mother's family members. Now, patience has never been one of my virtues, and so, after about twenty minutes of watching my bobber float placidly on the water, I grew tired of the experience. My Uncle Charles, the quiet one in the family, was sitting nearby--in fact, he had helped me bait my hook in the first place--and so I asked him if he would like to have my line.
"Are you sure?" He asked. "If you'll wait a little while, you might catch something."
I shrugged, handed him the pole, and scampered off down the pond dam toward the woods to look for lizards and fallen oak leaves.
I only got halfway around the pond when I heard yells and a tremendous splashing. I turned around quickly to see that my uncle was reeling in a big old bass on my pole. My mouth dropped open and I ran right back around that pond to get a better look.
By the time I got there, Charles was holding up his catch for everyone to see and he looked at me with a twinkle in his eye. "See?" He said. "If you'd have just waited a little longer you'd have been the one catching this fish."
Later, I learned to love fishing and acquired enough patience to at least give the fish a half hour before moving to another spot. However, I cannot claim that I have not given in to my own impatience on countless occasions and consequently lost out on many opportunities. How many times have I looked back after giving up only to find that if I had just waited a little longer, I would have reeled in the catch of a lifetime?
But then, there are other times I've remembered that experience with my Uncle Charles, remembered the lesson it taught me. When you really want something, you can never give up. Try a different bait, move to a different spot maybe. But never, ever surrender your fishing pole.
Who wants to see someone else reeling in their catch of the day?