“It really is scary... y'know... the way things are goin'?” He said, his voice rising slightly on the last word, more a question than a statement.
I looked across the table at Tom, it was seven thirty in the morning, the first coffee of the day had barely started buzzing my brain, I had to be at work in an hour, I didn't want to listen about the world's problems.
“I'm not scared.” I said to him, “I have too much crap on my own plate to think about, unpaid bills crap, work crap, busted car crap, ex-wife crap, and oh yeah, more unpaid bills crap.”
“But just look at the situation,” He persisted, “most of Europe is paralysed with riots, unemployment is the highest it's ever been, there's massive military build-up on the India-Pakistan border, there was a facebook leak that Israel have gone to red alert, the new Iranian government has thrown out the UN inspectors, the Chinese and American economies are both on the brink of bankruptcy. I think we're heading towards total global meltdown.”
I propped my elbows on the table, let my face fall into my hands and let loose a long heartfelt sigh, after a few seconds I stood and walked out of the back door and up to the shed, opened the door and started pulling things out.
Tom walked up and stood beside me, a bemused look on his face. “What're you doin'?” He said.
“Given the circumstances,” I replied, “I'm doing the best thing I can do.”
“What's that? Getting the spade to start diggin' a shelter?”
I found the item I was looking for. “ No,” I said, dragging the rod out. “I'm going fishing.”
©2011 Stephen. J. Green.
Author's note:-
Hi everyone, I'm going away for a couple of days, yup, you guessed it, I'm going fishing, so I'll be catching up with the reading and commenting sometime on Sunday. Have a great weekend, and thank you for reading.
Steve Green.
I think understand the circumstances he made the right choice! LOL
ReplyDeleteHope you have a good weekend and catch something delicious. ^__^
Oh bum I wrote understand when I meant under the - ^__^
ReplyDeleteNice super-short, my man. Enjoy fishing!
ReplyDeleteMinor typo: "bankrupty" should be "bankruptcy"
Have fun. Since you can't send us fish through the interwebs [yet], maybe you'll have a photo or two to share when you come back?
ReplyDeleteQuite so...life goes on. Perhaps not for the the fish.
ReplyDeleteAs "socio-political-I'm-off-on-holidays" manifestos go this one pretty much sums things up!
ReplyDeleteSound advice for all of us. Good luck, and I hope you catch all you're allowed to. By the way, what type of fish are you after?
ReplyDeleteA fun reminder to enjoy life while we've got it. Have a great fishing trip!
ReplyDelete@Helen – I think so too Helen, and I did have a really relaxing weekend too, thank you. :-)
ReplyDelete@John – Thank you John, I did enjoy the fishing, even though I didn't actually catch anything, I did plenty of chilling out in the sunshine. (Fixed the typo too, thank you)
@Tim – Thanks Tim, it seems as far as the fish are concerned, the safest place in the lake is right next to my hook, so sorry, but no photo. :-)
@Justin – Life goes on for the fish too, any fish landed are always returned to the water. :-)
@Jason – Haha, Thanks Jason. :-)
@Stephen – Thanks Stephen, we did a couple of mid afternoon to late evening sessions, fishing for carp, it was a large lake and the action was very slow due to the very hot weather, my brother-in-law landed a 15-pounder late on the second evening, I managed to land a couple of mozzie bites. But whether I catch or not, I still enjoy the hours on the lakeside.
@Chuck – I did enjoy myself, thank you Chuck. And yes, the clock is ticking, so opportunities to enjoy ourselves should not be missed if at all possible. :-)
I know how he feels - I wouldn't go fishing but I'd certainly consider just giving up and doing something other than panicking!
ReplyDeleteHi Icy, anything is better than panicking isn't it? and that "Anything" is even better if it is something that you enjoy. :-)
ReplyDeleteStephen, I think that's an excellent idea, maybe they should invite the rest of the U.N. too, there's nothing so good as peaceful surroundings for instilling peaceful thoughts. :-)
ReplyDelete