Merwin: I Feel Better About Fishing

My late friend and famous Field & Stream author Ed Zern could come up with a wry and funny remark regarding just about anything. As he wrote in 1977, “I get all the truth I need in the newspaper every morning, and every chance I get I go fishing, or swap stories with fishermen, to get the taste of it out of my mouth.”

Me, too. But at the same time news has become so much more immediate--and at times overwhelming--that it’s hard not to feel buffeted by current events.

This week’s disastrous earthquake in Haiti is the latest example. Incredible human suffering shows on every page and screen as I write this. It is impossible not to feel somehow touched by this while at the same time feeling a little helpless.

So this morning I stopped working, scheming, and writing about fishing long enough to make a modest contribution to the American Red Cross for disaster relief. This was not a lot to do, but at least I could feel as if I’d done a little.

And having done at least something, I’ll also then feel a little better about going fishing....