minding mother

The day I rediscovered Mother Teresa's words, the so-called war on terror had just cranked up, and the Rumsfeld/Cheney Crew were dignifying the call to violence with rhetoric so over-the-top it abrogated divine authority, "Operation Infinite Justice" being the most spectacularly sad example. What a grounded, utterly human antidote, [her]words, "We can do no great things--only small things, with great love." What a relief! Mother's advice gave me permission to do stuff like play with my kids and go fishing again.

This may seem digressive, but I actually live Mother T's advice when I fish. No joke. On big Montana trout rivers, you often see fly fishers trying to "do great things" by "fishing heroically," making great long casts out into the giant flow as if they're thinking OPERATION INFINITE TROUT! But we who like to actually catch trout scarcely glance at the vast flow. Instead we parse the river, slicing off a tiny slice known as a "feeding lane" where, if a trout is holding and bugs are hatching, you target a single trout, repeatedly rising. In huge Western rivers, three or four hundred feet wide in places, I'm talking about a ribbon six inces in width. Yet this ribbon, believe me, is where all the rising trout get hooked.

A fly-fisherly stragegy you could import from Montana in order to keep "making a difference": every morning, look for "ribbons." One person in need. One deft paragraph to complete. One smile for a stranger. One small thing you sense could be done with full-on attentiveness and love. And after you finish it, look for another one. Ad infinitum.
--David James Duncan