Sabbatical -- Day 44: Finding Your Depth

August 8

I decided, after coffee of course, to go fishing today. I made a quick trip to WalMart for fishing reinforcements and went to the Kentucky Horse Park. I discovered last week that they allow public fishing at the Horse Park and that they even keep the Rolex pond stocked.

The Rolex pond is 5.6 acres and it is trimmed beautifully to the waters edge. No bugs. No spiders. No huge branches to catch my line. Open, beautiful, with two fountains shooting plumes of water into the air. And across the way from where I stopped the beautiful Rolex Stadium and Eventing Complex. Nice sightlines all the way around.

This is a photo taken at the time of the World Equestrian Games, but shows what a nice pond and view it was while fishing.

I purchased too quickly at the bait counter at WalMart. I didn't check the contents before I checked out. Big mistake. The Night Crawlers I purchased were all dead and already decaying. When I opened the container on the bank of the pond the smell was not pretty nor were the worms lively and ready to allure fish to them. Nonetheless, the decaying remains of the worms worked well enough that I had some success in catching three catfish. I lost two others because the fishing equipment I took was ultralight and the line snapped twice. I will do better on both counts as I think I am going to go back tomorrow.

Yes. I put it back in the pond.

Success in fishing in a pond somewhat depends on finding the right depth at which to pull, drag, bounce or dangle the bait. Catfish was not what I was after. I was hoping to get some good sized Bluegill. Catfish are usually on the bottom, and as I was dangling the worm about a foot below the bobber I wasn't expecting Catfish, but there they were. No bluegill at all. That was curious to me.

As I said last week in a previous post, I am not a skilled fisherman. I enjoy fishing partly because of the game of trying to figure out what the fish will bite and where and what depth and at what time of year and what time of day and under what conditions. It's a puzzle. Finding your depth is a key part of the puzzle so I played around with varying depths trying to get those fish on my line.

Reading "Seven Brief Lessons on Physics" took me a little out of my depth, but it was in the right pond. I am not a skilled physicist. I just love physics. It's a puzzle. Trying to figure out the right depth is a part of that puzzle. I wonder if there is something of life in finding one's depth, dabbling in things we love, and solving puzzles. I wonder.

While I was fishing I received word that Henry "Bussie" Rosenthal had passed. Bussie was a part of the periphery of First Christian Church. His father was Board Chair for many years before his passing; and Ada, his mother, and Vincent his brother, have been deeply involved in the church so, Bussie was a part of us. He was a gentleman lawyer. He defended scores of people over the years who were marginalized in some way. He championed those who were outcast. He played basketball into his 70's with all sorts of folks. He was a true, liberal, inclusive, small town lawyer who actually made a difference in people's lives. May God receive him with grace and raise him up on the last day.

In other news, I got my lawnmower back from Central Equipment. It took four weeks for them to diagnose and repair it. But, it was so clean after they were done I was impressed with their work and the little extra things they did but didn't charge extra. As soon as I got it home, I mowed. It had been two weeks to the day since the grass was mowed. It doesn't look so great today, but there was a lot of grass.

Peace and Love,
Jerry