The Literary Fly Fisher

This last summer I had the pleasure of fishing some Transylvanian streams for wild brown trout and grayling.  I have grown to enjoy other parts of the Carpathians (my brother-in-law lives on the edges, in Hungary), but this was my first trip Transylvania. I was invited to fish there by Claudiu Presecan, a gifted painter.  Claudiu and I share the feeling that activities such as fly fishing can create a space in our lives, from which we can better appreciate the enduring, material world around us — the things that exist beyond money, status, and the other most superficial features of “culture.” Claudiu and his family served as my hosts in Romania.  They were joined in this task by Claudiu’s fly fishing friends Paul Sas (of Xander Fly Rods) and Dan Sacui.  I really enjoyed my time talking, eating, drinking, and fly fishing with all of them.  I am genuinely eager to do so again.

As the world seems to shrink and the consequences of our and others’ actions increase in speed, it is becoming harder to avoid discussing controversial social topics. This may be especially the case in parts of Central and Eastern Europe.  Of course, many of these topics need to be dealt with head on.  But some of them are best put aside. When one of these difficult topics would appear on the conversational horizon, during my visit to Romania, I noticed that Claudiu would simply say, “That doesn’t matter.” It was such a simple and decisive way of focusing people’s attention (including my own) upon the topics that do really matter. To Claudiu, his friends, me, and many others, the environment and the connections that it makes possible to fellow outdoor sportspersons, people of other cultures, nonhuman beings, and even our creator are the topics of greatest importance. You can see this understanding in Claudiu’s short film, The River, and you can it reflected in his beautiful paintings as well.

This entry was posted on October 14, 2013 at 3:31 PM and is filed under Fishing and Religion, The Arts, The Environment. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.