Generally, in the social media world there is a tendency to
present our lives as more positive than reality. It is difficult to compete with all those
happy smiling faces, and so we keep it positive.
This is also true of fishing. When it comes to fishing,
there is lot of pressure to appear successful.
If you are a guide or someone who is somehow making money through the
fly fishing industry then the pressure is even greater. We have to keep posting
pictures of our catches. No one wants to
be a failure. We all need to put on a
smiling face. We need to look good. So, as a guide, caught up in this craze, I also
often post pictures of fish and give positive fishing reports.
However, social media most often does not capture the
reality of a day on the river (or a day in the life, for that matter). The
pictures are “snap shots” or highlights of when I or my clients finally caught a fish. The pictures do
not show or reveal the hours and hours of fishing when nothing happens except
messy tangles and snags and when the fish refuse to take the fly. We wait and
wait and sometimes we are bored out of our minds.
Sometimes social media snapshots of a family vacation can be
the same way. The family poses for a photo on the beach and everyone looks
happy. However this picture might reveal a mere split second when the kids were
not fighting, crying about getting stung by a jellyfish, dirty diapers, or the parents were not having a
reoccurring argument.
Therefore for this fishing post I have no picture of a fish
or of smiling faces, or a group photo showing
connections with family and friends. Fishing on a river, or daily living, has large
segments of absent fish, loneliness and frustrations.
This is the reality of life.
This is no fish story. But I can say it is life.
No comments:
Post a Comment