By Charles Towne
When I was just a kid back in Illinois on the Fox River I had a nice little business going where I caught fish and sold them to the folks in my hometown. My technique, called “grubbing” was a tad unorthodox, but successful. I knew how those big, old blue catfish dearly loved to hide in holes in the riverbank... so I would swim along and when I discovered one of those holes I would stick my hand in there and feel around. If the catfish was home, I would grab him, and somebody was soon going to be eating catfish. One day I had caught several fish in this manner and was dragging them behind me on a stringer. As I moved along with just my head above the surface I noticed a man standing on the riverbank watching me.
“Hey kid,” he shouted, “what’cha doing there?” I called back to him, “Catching catfish!”
Charles Towne
He laughed, “Why son, you are surely wasting your time,” he exclaimed, “you can’t catch fish that way!”
Just then I found a hole and running my hand in there I soon had another catfish. I stood up and made a big show of putting that fish on the stringer along with the others I had caught. I called to the man, “you are probably right mister, but I gotta keep trying!”
When I looked at that fellow, he was standing there staring at me with his mouth hanging open like he was catching flies. That was the first time I ever saw anybody literally struck speechless. It’s a good thing to remember that any fool can point out why a certain thing can’t be done, but It’s not a good thing to interrupt the man, or boy, that’s doing it.
Live fully,
Love openly,
And make a difference, today
Charles Towne is an author, longtime resident of Apopka, and a member of Insp!re Church. His book on caregiving “Who Cares” will be published soon.
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