The Great Truths: love, sin, grace, God, and yes, fly fishing.

Study.

I am a terrible student. A very successful one, when it came to grades, but not one who
likes to read. I'm a good reader, I just do not like to read. Actually, what I don't like is
getting started reading, and sticking with it.

My big problem is that I lose interest pretty easily, and I am a snob. Writing needs to be
not only the right subject (religion often bores me to tears), but the writing itself needs to
be good -- better yet, artful.

The last time I studied, I mean really studied a subject, was when I was teaching a
biology course at Winona State: "The Science And Art of Fly Fishing." Entomology,
ichthyology, limnology, geology, books by Isaac Walton, Lefty Kreh, John Giergach, and
many others simply absorbed my consciousness. My favorite was, and is still, A River
Runs Through It, by Norman MacLean.

If you tell me that you saw the movie, I will smack you. This very short novella is one of
the best bits of American writing, ever, and it has the great added bonus of being about
fly fishing. Sort of. Like all good writing, the story is merely a vehicle for conveying
greater truth, and in this case, The Great Truths: love, sin, grace, God, and yes, fly
fishing.




So my study habits are undisciplined and unconventional. I don't really want to turn my
faith practice into a chore. My pursuit of Joy in the presence of God seldom comes
through study. More often it comes in action. I am what they call a kinetic learner. I
study most effectively not by seeing, but by doing.

Kids in school who can complete reading assignments with ease and with joy are
blessed with success. Those of us who must engage in something in order to
understand it, are not so esoteric.

John C.
(Reverend, Unemployed and On Leave From Call)