Good morning…
“He looked up from his coffee, fixing me with one eye, the other squinted like Clint Eastwood. “There’s somethin I heard ’bout white folks that bothers me, and it has to do with fishin.”
He was serious and I didn’t dare laugh, but I did try to lighten the mood a bit. “I don’t know if I’ll be able to help you,” I said, smiling. “I don’t even own a tackle box.”
Denver scowled, not amused. “I think you can.”
He spoke slowly and deliberately, keeping me pinned with that eyeball, ignoring the Starbucks groupies coming and going on the patio around us. “I heard that when white folks go fishin they do somethin called ‘catch and release.'”
Catch and release? I nodded solemnly, suddenly nervous and curious at the same time.
“That really bothers me,” Denver went on. I just can’t figure it out. ‘Cause when colored folks go fishin, we really proud of what we catch, and we take it and show it off to everybody that’ll look. Then we eat what we catch…in other words, we use it to sustain us. So it really bothers me that white folks would go to all that trouble to catch a fish, then when they done caught it, just throw it back in the water.”
He paused again, and the silence between us stretched a full minute. Then: “Did you hear what I said?”
I nodded, afraid to speak, afraid to offend.
Denver looked away, searching the blue autumn sky, then locked onto me again with his drill-bit stare. “So, Mr. Ron, it occurred to me: if you is fishin for a friend you just got catch and release, then I ain’t got no desire to be your friend.”
…Suddenly his eyes gentled and he spoke more softly than before: “But if you is lookin for a real friend, I’ll be one. Forever.” (Hall and Moore’s Same Kind of Different As Me, 106-107)
This is one of my favorite quotes from a book I love, a book that has been made into a movie by Paramount Pictures. I suppose if we extend our soul to satisfy the hungry, afflicted soul, it is very important for us to catch and keep.
If you extend your soul to the hungry and satisfy the afflicted soul, then your light will dawn in the darkness, and your darkness shall be as the noonday (Isaiah 58:10, NKJV).
…Sue…
P.S. Coinciding with the October movie release, come be a part of Carry the Torch, a city-wide event raising funds and awareness to support our homelessness community here in Atlanta. Carry the Torch will be held at the Georgia World Congress Center on October 25th, 11:00 – 1:00 pm. For more details, visit www.carrythetorchatlanta2017.com.
P.S.S. To view the movie trailer of this touching, true story, follow this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v8MWxtpjVp8.
