Fish stories

I wish one day I can try to sit on a boat in a tranquil lake somewhere and then cast a fishing line out into the water, and discover what thoughts can swim into my brain as I wait for the fish to bite. 

My last student for tonight was a lawyer who likes to fish. He wanted to have a free conversation lesson, but didn't appear to be willing to make the effort of talking. Perhaps he was sleepy or tired. Well so was I. I slept at three in the morning this Sunday, and woken up at seven-thirty, because I had an 8 o'clock class. Now this student didn't really tell me a lot about himself so I just revolved around the topic of fishing. 

So we talked about Ernest Hemingway's The Old Man and The Sea, which he said he's heard of but haven't read yet, a favorite foreign language indie film of mine, which was Japanese, but he hadn't seen (understandable- indie, remember?), Fish Story, and Hayao Miyasaki's Ponyo, an animated film about a fish-princess who fell in love with a human boy.

I was mostly the one talking during the 30-minute lesson, and I hoped I didn't bore him when I told him why he should read The Old Man and The Sea-- Hemingway's classic tale about the determination of one old man who was determined to finish a task he had vowed himself to do against all odds. 

As for Fish Story (フィッシュストーリー Fisshū Sutōrī), I saw this movie last 2011 (?) amid all the hype about the world ending on the 21st of December, 2012. This was what that movie was about - the end of the world, and how punk rock saved it. Superduper awesomest punk rock movie ever made, by director Yoshihiro Nakamura.

Ponyo he was familiar with. I guess Hayao Miyasaki was a household name in Japan. So. I told him I really liked the films of Hayao Miyasaki because they always send a positive message. He said he's kind of a pessimistic person, so he needs to watch these kinds of films more often to encourage him, although he didn't sound eager to be encouraged. Hmm, it was kind of ironic (and I told him this) for somebody who likes fishing to be a pessimist. "What, you're hoping for the fish not to bite?" I asked him.

In hearing/inferring on what he said about himself, an image of a man who sits on the grassy bank of the river, fishing rod cast out to the shore, unmoved both in spirit and body came into mind (I hope I can find a better avenue for this sudden image - poetry perhaps). And reflecting about it, I realized he has every right to be pessimistic, and I have no right to challenge that. I too, have my dark days.

I haven't fished in my life, who am I to know what thoughts flow through a man's stream of consciousness as he draws his fishing line and watches the current and waits for the fish? 

Homer Winslow's "Boy Fishing"