“Oh
yes, lots of them.”
“Well,
do you not know how to fish?”
“Oh
yes, I certainly do!”
“Well
are we lacking a hook?”
“Oh
no, I have bait and tackle, and all you could want over there in my
cabin.”
“So
why are you chewing on that leathery piece of jerky, when you could
be feasting on fresh fish?” asked the young man.
“Well,”
replied the old man, “There is a reason, if you really want to
know.”
The
young man assured him he was dying for some fish, and really wanted
to know. “When I was a young man, I came upon a parchment, telling
you how to fish. It specified exactly the hook to use, exactly the
bait to use, exactly how heavy a line, and what color. Not only
this, but it explained the best weather, the ideal time of day, and
just where in the lake to put down a line. It told where the best
logs were that the fish use for cover, and the best backwaters. It
showed how to fillet the fish, and what kind of fire to cook it over.
So I took the advice, and began to fish.”
“Well,
did you catch anything?” came the query.
“Not
only did I catch fish, I caught them all over the place. I caught 5
and 6 an hour. I had so many fish I didn’t know what to do with
them all.”
“So
you’re trying to tell me you’re sick of fish, is that it?”
“On
the contrary, I love a good Striper, but with this parchment, all I
ever caught were Carp”
Moral:
If
we don’t like the fish we are catching, should we
A: Learn
to like the kind of fish we have been catching?
B: Learn
to fish differently?
We
want to understand that in the analysis, the opposite sex is the
fish, and each of us as an individual is fishing for a lasting
relationship.
Leaving
aside that a really hungry person will simply get a net (and ladies,
fishnet's WILL do it for a one night stand,) most of us are willing
to play a numbers game to a degree, with the incentive of stability
and happiness as our final destination.
