Gifts Without Price
By Chris Coray, The Unmuddled Mathmatician
This is a story about four lucky guys. None is a spring chicken. A month ago the four of us were invited by a
man, all of us very hold dear, to go fishing with him. Sounds pretty simple, doesn’t it? Well, it isn’t. This was a trip that rekindled old
acquaintances, made new ones, and needs to be recorded. The story will probably mean more to the
descendants of the originator than to those of us who experienced the event.
All told we were 5 in number. Mike, Michael, James, me, and the guy who
invited us. The four of us were each
invited individually by our buddy to fish Yellowstone Lake earlier this
month. Our host would provide housing in
a building (he calls it a cabin, which it is not—a lodge full of mysteries is a
better description) so lovely that it takes a lot more than two days to begin
to appreciate it. Further, our host
would provide the boat, all fishing tackle, his experience of many trips on the
lake, and most of all, the affection he has for each of us, given freely and
over long periods of time.
And we know
of his affection. He demonstrates it
always and also clearly tells us. He is
just an extraordinary man who has literally saved the lives of some of us. He has no guile, a great sense of humor, especially
when laughing at himself, and would do anything to avoid disappointing any of
his friends. There are some obstacles to
be overcome here. First, as his friends
we have a fair share of warts, peccadilloes, egos, and vast overestimates of our
accomplishments and skill sets. Next, he
has severe peripheral neuropathy in his feet that has caused him so much pain
that there have been many periods when he could not walk. His 34th (actual) legitimate and
substantive medical effort to relieve the pain means that he now carries around
in his fanny a small electronic device that has wires planted right into his
spine. The device sends signals that
block the pain from getting to his brain.
Pretend that you have put an IPhone 4 in your rear pocket. Now check the pocket. It’s empty.
When you finally get down to the skin there is the outline of the
surgically embedded control device.
I
have never heard him complain once about the hand he has been dealt (the
medical hand). He has been known to
complain about the cards he has been dealt in Canasta, but only accompanied by
laughter.
So he has lived his entire life giving to others. On this trip all we had to do was bring a
little food for our meals and get a fishing license. The four of us drove up together on Monday
and met him at his magnificent place. We
made the evening meal, told the usual number of lies to each other, and as some
of us were previously unacquainted, got to know each other. Read The Old Man and Boy by Robert
Ruark. The next morning we connected his boat to his trailer, made the 3 hour trip to the lake in his truck and went fishing, using his equipment.
But this was not fishing, it was catching.
Our host handled the boat. He did not
fish until the last 5 minutes. We caught
so many cutthroat and lake trout that doubles and triples were too common to
count. There was some effort to keep
track of how many fish we caught in 5 hours but it was a silly and futile effort. Everybody gave up when we got past 50. Can fishing get too good? Well, we pushed that question to the
edge. Lake trout caught in Yellowstone
Lake must be killed (no limit) by law so there was also a lot of fish cleaning
that got done. All the cutthroats are
still in the lake. In the last 5 minutes
of the fishing we finally got him to use a rod and catch a fish. All the rest of the time he spent taking care
of us.
We got back to the “cabin” after 10 p.m., made an excellent
meal, and rehydrated on apple juice brought by James. It is the best apple juice I have ever had
and after a day on the water in bright sun all of us were in need of more
liquid than we would have thought.
During all of this experience we shared stories from our
lives, some of them even true. But
subconsciously for me and I am certain for the other 3 guests as well, we were
all giving internal thanks for our experiences with the host, his gift of this
trip to us; the admiration, affection and gratitude we have for him, and how
lucky we have been. A nights rest and a
great breakfast on Wednesday allowed for memories to become more defined and
fixed. They will not fade, even as we
do.
It matters not who you are or what your life has been. You cannot have a better friend who has given
more than ours. There is no metric to
use in this kind of statement, yet it is true and we have a treasure stored up
for all of our lives.
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