Resistance is Futile

Bad metaphor #43282.5

When I was a kid, I used to go camping several times a year.  We would always camp near a lake or a river.  I loved the water.  I am a confident swimmer and it was a great way to cool off in the summer.

I also loved to fish.  I was not a fly fisherman.  That is probably why my face is largely intact to this day.  I would be dangerous with a sharp object whizzing back and forth over my head.  I was purely a side caster.

If I was fishing in the river and it was a hot day, I would sometime stand in the middle of the river cast upstream and let my bait float back past me.  Oddly enough, this was a fairly decent strategy.  I caught many a fish in my day.  On a side note, I have not gone fishing since my grandfather died, but that is another story.

Now in the Rockies, streams run fast.  When you are in the current, you have to brace yourself to stand in place.  If you want to move, you kind of take deliberate plodding spaceman steps so that you don’t lose your footing.  Moving and standing still required constant muscle tension.

But if you wanted to move directly ahead, you had two choices.  You could take use the same spaceman walk strategy that required great effort.  Alternatively, you could just sit in the river and let the current take you forward.  The later was a lot more fun.

Looking at my approach to spirituality, I think I have done a lot of spacewalking over the course of my life.  In the past I have put a great deal of effort into taking small steps forward.  Then I chucked the whole thing.  I almost got out of the river all together.

Now I am just going with the flow.  Granted, I am not fully in control and I am not sure where this will lead.  But I am enjoying the ride a whole lot more.

Chuck out the fishing rods and break out the inner tubes.