Earthly Things First:

Note:  I know this title alone will cause some to think I have my priorities all messed up. And maybe that is the case. I just know that in my own quest of trying to learn of spiritual things that often I get it all backwards. Therefore, perhaps, at least at times, Earthly Things First.  

Jesus, told Nicodemus that he needed to be born of spirit and Jesus tried to explain to him how the wind was like the spirit.  But Nicodemus didn’t get it. He didn’t understand how a person could be born a second time.  Jesus said to him, “If you do not understand earthly things how will you understand spiritual things”?

It seems that Jesus is suggesting that we can’t skip over understanding earthly things if we are going to understand spiritual realities. We can’t just skip this step. In fact, I think we have to keep going back and relearning the earthly and natural things as we pursue the spiritual. The path to spiritual knowledge seems to work in cycles, going back to the beginning, going back to earthly things, just as natural cycles of earth go round and round and just as Jesus some times takes us back to the beginning; Birth.  

I think Jesus was getting at something very important when he told us to, “Consider the Lily of the field”. He wanted us to consider the earthly qualities of the lily, its birth, life and death, to such an extent that we would also learn some deeper meaning. He asks us to really know the lily and spend some time with it and then we might grasp something spiritual about the lily and life. But, perhaps, as Jesus said to Nicodemus, if we are not learning the earthly things we will not get the spiritual.

Why are we not learning the earthly, natural things such as knowing how to read the skies to know if a storm is approaching or how to read the waters we fish? Most of us could not grow or obtain our own food. Why is it that so much of our culture lives life separate from natural processes?

Maybe we are just not interested, or, we don’t think earthly things are important. Maybe we were taught that wilderness has nothing to do with our spirituality when in fact our Biblical tradition tells us it does.  Maybe we just think it is more important to stay at home inside and read books about the spiritual and maybe we just don’t want to get cold, or dirty and be away from our computer gadgets, TV’s., and the comforts we have grown accustomed to.

I often meet folks who may know their Bible and can talk about religious ideas but often there is a lack of intensity and depth. Spiritual ideas can be too domesticated and sterile.  Maybe they lack time in the “wilderness” missing nature's wonders and brutalities and at the same time miss something of the “wildness” of God.  Perhaps they have not been grounded with earthly things. A spirituality without the weight and grounding experience of earthly things seems light and lofty.  Perhaps we all need some kind of an on-going wilderness experience to know the depth and weight of earthly things so that our spiritual experience has a place to settle.   

Consider the lily said Jesus. Look at it long enough to really know that one lily on the side of the path you take to a river or the top of a mountain. Consider it, look at it, and spend time with it.

Or, consider that one tiny mayfly you often stare at and try to imitate with your hand tied flies as you watch trout sip them.  Watch that one mayfly closely. And watch that one big rainbow as it feeds. Pay attention to the swarms of mayfly’s overhead that fall to the water. Wonder why the fish sometimes eat them like it was their last meal or on other days, ignore them entirely.  Watch the mayflies live and die only to be reborn the next morning. Watch them die out when Fall approaches only to be born again the following Spring. Then, after several decades of standing in the river and taking into consideration these tiny bugs you may understand some thing of the Spirit. Maybe; maybe not.

Jesus spoke of other natural things such as wind, water, mountain, meadow, seeds, rock and soil. Yes, even, dirt. Jesus asks us to consider dirt and to be aware of the depth and fertility of soil in our souls. He asks us to strongly consider if seeds that blow in on the wind from another kingdom could grow in our hearts and take root and grow strong[AS1] .

Do we have enough earth? Do we have enough fertile ground inside our souls?  And, do we know enough of Earthly things to understand spiritually what He is trying to teach us?

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 [AS1]

Fly Fishing and Existentialism:

 

Sartre said that by writing he was existing. Relating this to fly fishing my thought is that there are fly fishers who might in a similar manner claim they exist by fly fishing. 

I can look back to the pond I fished as a kid and make a similar conclusion. By fly fishing at a pond, I existed.  And in the years after the pond, I continued to need fly fishing mainly on the South Platte River where I existed as a guide.

Soren Kierkegaard added a religious component to his own existence and to his ideas on existentialism. He thought that until a person becomes deeply religious and authentic, we simply are not serious individuals. It is like playing Christianity or playing around with our lives and taking neither seriously.

What I appreciate about this type of Christianity combined with existentialism is that it forces the individual to take responsibility for his/her life and his/her choices. We can’t just dump all our problems on God and refuse to take responsibility. We have to choose but we choose while deeply aware of God watching us. Together, the individual and his awareness of God, becomes serious.

William Barrett described this seriousness in this way, “It is the simple and forthright seriousness of someone who at last has arrived at his center and who is therefore totally engaged in the project of his life and with all that entails. The person exists under the eye of eternity and therefore what he does in the moment is absolutely real.”

The choice to walk to the pond was real. I chose the path in a moment of time.  It felt weighty in that moment and to follow that path had a price because I chose to be more or less alone. In looking back at that aloneness, it now feels glorious, especially in comparison to all the crowds I now experience on the river. Oh, how I would love to be alone, or at least somewhat alone now on the South Platte River. I doubt such aloneness will ever return to the South Platte.

The eyes of eternity were upon me and I could feel their weight. The eyes of eternity were also upon me every day I guided the past 35 years and are upon me now as I try to adjust to booming guiding businesses and crowds on the river.

This will be a big adjustment for me to make.

What is the greater challenge? Being alone? Or being part of the crowds?

Or, feeling alone within the crowds.

 

Fishing After School: Chasing Childhood Images.

 

“Oh childhood, O images slipping from us. Whither Whither?”  Rilke

Fishing after school brings back memories. As a kid, I would rush home, grab my fly rod and rush up to a private pond that was loaded with Largemouth Bass. Back then, I only carried a fly rod and kept in my pocket an extra white marabou streamer. No vest. No waders. Not even an extra leader.

This past week, after school, I drove down to Pueblo’s Arkansas River. Of course, I am no longer a student but rather I am an educator. Yet I felt some of that old excitement of being a child and looking for big fish. Some things never change. And some things do.

I now carry a lot of equipment. Too much perhaps.  I was geared up with two rigged fly rods, my vest stuffed with fly boxes containing thousands and thousands of flies and numerous pieces of tackle, leaders and tools and gadgets.  And of course, I had waders. How different from fishing during the simplicity of childhood when I only wore shorts and sneakers.

The big rainbows were there. I could see them just as I could see big bass in the shallows of the pond I fished as a kid.  My eye sight is still good.  In certain ways sight casting to bass was similar to casting to rainbows.  Spot the fish, put the fly in front of the fish. I didn’t need the extra tackle. Extra tackle does not help the eyes. I caught several large bows 19-22 inches and several smaller fish. As is most often the case, I missed many. It didn’t matter.

I only fished two hours. I accomplished what I had hoped for and brought something back unexpected.  Something from long ago, a deep and loving memory of being a child on a late sunny afternoon walking a pond stalking fish with seeing eyes, hope in my heart and fly line looping over head toward the skies.  

Oh images, do not slip away.