Fly Fishing as a Rite of Passage

Fly fishing in the majestic beauty of nature can serve as a rite of passage for individuals to move out of one phase of life into a new one with new possibilities. A spiritual rite of passage can occur for youth (and certainly should) but also for anyone of any age who is at a place where he or she senses it is time to “move” to the next more mature stage of life.  

I have written in “Glimpses from a Childhood Pond”, that when I was a young boy, fly fishing helped me deal with the challenges of youth. I can also see how my experience at the pond served as a rite of passage placing me on a different and new path.  In looking back at that passage I get a sense that a new image was placed in my heart. It was a new image of not so much of who I was to become, but rather it seemed to show me who I would not become. I was made aware that I would not live my life following my peers but I would find my own path and follow a different ‘calling’.  

Sometimes a rite of passage can start from a “call”. Joseph Campbell had written extensively on the hero’s journey and rites of passage describing the “call” not so much as a call but, as a   “deliberate refusal of the offered terms of life”.  In other words, the individual does not hear a voice beckoning him or her to “come over here” but rather the individual perceives the stagnation of his or her life (if he or she would remain in the status quo), and intuits that it is time to move on.   In a sense the individual refuses to live in the conditions and terms of live presently offered.  And that refusal creates a vacuum that gives birth to something new which is often a new path and direction.  As the individual senses this new path forming and begins to go down that path he or she recognizes it as his or her own.  

I do believe there is valid reason for concern if the vacuum in young people is mostly filled with “stimulating” computer video games, which in my opinion do not provide a true rite of passage.  I have worked in public education for the last 28 years and having worked with many kids I get a sense that some kind of more meaningful rite of passage is needed. Perhaps fly fishing out in nature can serve as some kind of rite of passage for young people. Some schools along with organizations such as the Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts provide field trips that promote camping and outdoor activities. These programs can be instrumental.  I do recognize there are problems even with these attempts. But being out in nature is at least a good starting place as it teaches kids that they are not the center of the universe and they are not in control. Trying to skillfully cast a tiny fly to a rising trout in a river current can be very humbling. The youth learns that he or she has to submit to the laws of nature. Crying and complaining do no good. Responsibility must be assumed.  The fly fisher can learn the art of patience. And then perhaps, in due time, he or she receives a well earned reward of a fish landed and yet the greatest reward was in the process it self.  

Adults likewise, at different stages of their life can benefit from a visit to the river where they can contemplate life. All too often people get stuck from the stresses of life heaped upon us from work and family. Perhaps, when the individual gets to the point of where they feel they can not take one more day of their life, it is time to say,  ‘yes,’ to the “call” to go to the mountains to fish.

Any trip to the mountains to fish can be a mini heroic journey of sorts and at the end of any heroic journey “treasure” is to be gained and brought back.  Often times the treasure can be a sense of accomplishment or some kind of wisdom that gives a person  a different perspective on life which can be shared with one’s  communities.  I hope you find such treasure for yourself.