I would invite everyone here to get into fishing. It's an amazing sport and pastime.
I'm reminded of a monologue (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J5zShnoU5GY) by an Italian actor. It's called, The Story of a Broken Man. This is my, more or less literal, translation.
This is the story of a man broken by power, commitments, and responsibilities.
I've been thinking about how many years it has been since I've last gone fishing.
I used to love fishing so much, but I don't go anymore.
Perhaps, I had more important things to do, even though right now I couldn't tell you which.
I haven't been back.
We always have more important things to do that don't make us feel better,
as if feeling better wasn't important enough.
When I used to fish, I was so excited that I would wake up before the alarm went off.
Actually, I was the one waking up the alarm. Wake uuup!
And you're there fishing and you are alone, and if you're alone, you'll be at one with yourself,
you don't think about anything else anymore.
You don't think about having to pay the mortgage, or about the current war.
You don't think about having to pay the mortgage to fund the current war.
You hear a gentle, polite voice
A voice we've all heard at least once in our life; a voice from within that tells you...
hey, hey...
You're so lucky!
I'm so lucky... I'm so lucky!
To me, fishing is like washing, a baptism.
The water of the river, if you let it work, will take away all your thoughts
and perhaps even all your sins.
Including the original sin which is the one that pisses me off the most, pure judicial harassment.
The water of the river, if you let it work, will wash away all your thoughts
and perhaps even all your sins and put you back into the world anew,
it fixes everything for you.
And so I thought, let's give a fishing rod to all these people who are paralyzed by power.
Let's give them the possibility to be alone with themselves,
let's help them forget that they're irreplaceable.
It will help them. It will help us.
Fishing might seem a small and trivial thing, but it's a return to simple things,
to the fundamentals we are losing.
Well, fishing gave me a great chance to hear that polite voice,
that gentle voice, that voice that tells you...
Hey, you're so lucky!
I'm so lucky, I'm so lucky!
We're so lucky, we are so lucky!
But...
But every time I hear that voice I'm a little ashamed and I'm almost embarrassed.
So then I thought, we must be really messed up if we are ashamed of feeling good.
Maybe this is why I'm broken, perhaps this is why I don't go fishing,
because I'm afraid of realizing that if I want...
if I really want...
I can feel good.