We probably all use the phrase; “He is a nice guy”. Or sometimes we might add the word ‘just’ to the statement, “He is just a nice guy”. I have used the phrase although when I use it I wish I had said something else.
Over the years I have grown to not really like this phrase. I guess I don’t really know what it means. “He is just a nice guy”. Nor do I like this phrase if people say this about me. Maybe I don’t trust it. Maybe I know myself better.
Sometimes fly fishermen will speak of other fly fishermen in this manner. He is just a nice guy. This might mean he is helpful and offers to others his secret fishing spots, techniques and secret fly patterns. Maybe he is very patient teaching others to fish. Or maybe he won’t sit on a hole all day but will instead offer up the water to others.
I do appreciate these qualities in fly fishermen yet I think the phrase “He is just a nice guy” is still far too limited in its meaning. I guess it is just not that simple. I don’t think guys are “just nice guys”, and I think we are being naïve to think in such a manner. Spiritually, there are deeper issues.
Maybe the problem is about truly knowing in the depths of ones soul where one is connected. Where are our roots so to speak? What is our motive for being nice? If a man is “just a nice” guy and his soul is connected only to himself then I guess the phrase, with a twist of irony, is fitting. He really is “just” a nice guy and nothing more. But such a man could hardly be called complete or truly human or even truly nice for that matter. It takes more than just a “self” to truly become what we were designed to be. Our roots can miss the vine of life.
And if we miss the vine of life, then we really are just a nice guy.
No comments:
Post a Comment