Somebody once said that if you feel too small to be effective, then you have never been stuck in a dark room with a mosquito. I thought about that and how unworldly the statement is, considering they were talking about a mosquito, just one.
Many years ago in a fishing trip to one of the barrier islands near Port Aransas we were attacked by those fiery critters, and not outside, we were inside our tent. All one had to do was get an arm close to the tent fabric and see hundreds if not thousands of little stingers try to get at you through the tent. It was amazing. We survived but paid a price.
That was the time I learned that it’s important to know what not to do, and instead of turning around and going home, we persisted: we tried to smoke them out, burn them out, wait them out, go mano a mano against them, then sprayed gallons of repellent and even used gasoline on our arms and necks, but it was no use. Those guys were frantic, true desperados and nothing but bulletproof glass would keep them at bay. Yet we stayed.
When it looked hopeless, my brother, not one to ever give up no matter what the odds, suggested calling in an artillery strike on our position, and I agreed, but that app wasn’t available then.
Instead of fighting fish, we ended up fighting mosquitoes and we lost. I don’t know why we didn’t give up. Eventually we had to give up, but not until we were out of food, out of repellent, out of patience and had contracted the black and blues. Bottom line: we were at the right place, well equipped, had good intentions and totally wasted three days.
I’m thinking that some of our so call leaders would do well to try fishing on a day like that. Not that they would learn anything, that’s too much to ask, but a few might, and the rest would get bit ‒ somewhat of a consolation anyway.
As a country we have learned to be very efficient at doing things that should not be done at all, and I can’t think of anything as useless and wasteful as that.
This Saturday at El Chap, I can show the scars to the inquisitive,
A la hora de siempre.
¡Viva darse por vencido a tiempo (surrender), Viva!
mt