Playing Hooky, in the Yemen, Faith & Fish

I played hooky, with my mom, yesterday.  We went to a new restaurant for lunch.  Sitting outside in the beautiful, dry, 73 degree sunshine, we both agreed that we could just stay there for the entire afternoon.  BUT, I had been really wanting to see the film, Salmon Fishing in the Yemen so off we went.  It seemed rather fitting as Mark was "up north" fishing for a couple days - not for salmon, of course, but still.  I was so starved of movie theater viewing that I loved the movie; the English castle, the exotic desert, the elegance of fly fishing, all on the big screen.  The little voice in the back of my head, however, was whispering snidely, "Just like that reviewer said, a movie that pretends it is something it's not -- namely, an intelligent romantic comedy."

But I had such a nice afternoon.  And, despite the cutesy humor, there were scenes that I thought of yet today.  Particularly a scene where the sheikh (who wants to introduce salmon fishing in the Yemen) is dining and conversing with an ichthyologist (played by Ewan McGregor [Kate adds a.k.a. Obi-wan Kenobi]).  Being a spiritual man himself, the sheikh asks Dr. Jones, the ichthyologist, about his faith.  Dr. Jones replies that he is not at all spiritual but more of a facts and numbers kind of guy.  Knowing that Dr. Jones as an avid fisherman, the sheikh reveals the similarities between religion and fishing in the way they both require patience, adherence to a given set of guidelines, and faith that a positive outcome waits for us in the end.

My Uncle Bud would tell us that he drove 35 minutes each way to go a particular church because mass lasted only 15 minutes there (versus the 60 minute mass at the church 5 minutes away).  You do the math.  He also said that it was better to be in a fishing boat thinking about God than to be in a church thinking about fishing.

As we walked out of the theater, our eyes squinting against the bright sun, I thought of the first and last line of S.E. Hinton's book, The Outsiders; "When I stepped out into the bright sunlight from the darkness of the movie house,..."  I can't ever walk out of a movie theater during daylight and not think of that line.