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Outdoor Truths: Aiming Outdoorsmen Toward Christ June 24th edition
 Night fishing is one of the ways one can tell if he is getting older. If night fishing takes less than a few minutes to plan, then you are still in your twenties. If it takes a day, you’re in your thirties. More than one day of planning with two days set aside for recuperation….then you are forty or older. The latter describes me. 

 When I think of night fishing I used to think of a black light on a bass boat for largemouth. Again, as I got older that thought was replaced with crappie fishing from a pontoon boat with plenty of food, a pillow, and  a sleeping bag in case the fishing got slow. But even though I can deal with the pontoon scenario, I’ve still not figured out how to come home that next morning, sleep for a few hours, and get up not feeling like a zombie. When I night fish, I can safely assume the next two days are shot. But what’s two or three days when there’s crappie to catch? Right? 


 I’ve always noticed even in the animal world, the older animals tend to do somewhat the same. They weigh effort against reward. While other younger critters are chasing after every curiosity, the older ones mostly move with intent and purpose. That is not to say the older ones do not play, but again their play is weighed against the price.  


 There’s no doubt the older we get, the more we do the same. I don’t play basketball anymore because the prize for the moment is not worth the pain for the month. At first the temptation was difficult, but after saying no for a number of years now, I have no problem sitting on the bench and embellishing on how great I used to be.  For me, night fishing is weighing the effort against the reward. And the rewards are getting less appealing after each birthday. 


 In some ways I wish that I had been more this way when I was younger. I was the one that chased after every whim, jumped on every “good deal,” and believed that the next multilevel marketing idea was the one that would finally cause me to “arrive.” Unfortunately, when I arrived, I looked around and said, “Yep, I’ve arrived. This must be the bottom.” I think I saw some of you there. 


 We all would do good to remember that good deals come along every day and if it is too good to be true, it usually is. We also need to remember that if we are too busy chasing things that are “too good to pass up,” we may be napping when something comes our way that is just for us. 


 I’m still not sure if I’m going crappie fishing or not, but at least I can say it gave me something to write about. And that’s a pretty good reward.


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