It wouldn’t be heaven without a trout stream. So I wrote at one time and my mind hasn’t changed about this over the years. Heaven on earth is a crystal pure native trout stream in a pristine forest environment, and beginning as a young boy I became quite expert in tying my own flies and trying them out here at Bull Run Creek, a beautiful stream with some lunker trout; my largest being over five pounds. That is a very large fish from a native stream. Of course, the largest I ever hooked got away. It hit at one of the largest pools nearly twenty-feet deep, its run causing the line sawing through the water to make a rooster tail nearly three-feet high across the wide pool before losing the hook. If you have ever experienced such a thing, you know the sinking feeling of your line abruptly going limp on such an occasion while you wonder, just how big was the one that just got away? Even worse, you know it will only be another fish story when you tell anyone about “the one that got away.”

For the truly devout there is nothing like the electric thrill of a good-sized trout striking your lure. I’m not putting down other devout anglers of bass and other types of fish, but the forest environment of wilderness native trout streams is as I said my idea of heaven on earth.

One night while camping alone by the stream and looking up at a canopy of countless brilliant stars overhead shining brightly in the velvet darkness the thought came to me Thoreau had mentioned casting his line upward to the heavens and I wondered if perhaps there may be “celestial fishes” I might catch in some manner provided I had the right bait? What is prayer if not a “fishing expedition?” And perhaps there are gods and goddesses, celestial fishes, to be caught provided one is a skillful enough fisherman. I haven’t thought about this for a very long time, but in sharing with a friend last night the idea of celestial fishes came to me once again and he thought it a great thing for the imagination; and he was right.

Of course, when people pray they never think of prayer being a fishing expedition though in fact much of prayer would fall into this category. And it is unfortunate politicians have resorted to using the phrase as Bush has done while stonewalling attempts to get at the truth of his abuse of office; as though there would ever be an honest attempt on the part of an equally corrupt Congress to really get at the truth of anything involving politicians not excepting Bush.

“The form of government which prevails, is the expression of what cultivation exists in the population which permits it.” Emerson was correct, and looking about America today one can only wonder what this says of the lack of cultivation in our population expressed in our present government, and if not a lack of cultivation just what, exactly, is being cultivated; the manners of Mexico, the manners of ghettos and barrios in America? As gangs terrorize, as our borders remain criminally, even treasonously open to the invasion by Mexico that Bush treasonously refers to as “migration” one can only wonder. That America has become a mongrelized nation forsaking our heritage, culture, language and borders must inevitably lead to increasing violence seems to go unnoticed by politicians and the MSM.

But most politicians and those involved with the MSM were never devout anglers; most have never experienced being alone in a wilderness setting fishing a native trout stream. And lacking this vital experience their manners have become corrupted to that of the masses that are equally ignorant of such a thing.

Along with a few others “Animal Planet” sometimes provides welcome relief from much of what is on TV, and a diversion from so much bad news of ominous proportions threatening on every hand. It takes more than a university education to appreciate how delicate a balance of life there is on our planet; and while I applaud Al Gore for bringing this to the attention of people I deplore his abuse of the facts to his own agenda, which can hardly be said to apply to nations like China that see Gore as a useful fool to their own agendas.

Admittedly only the very elite of humankind, the elect, are permitted into the Holy of Holies, the wild native trout streams where the gods and goddesses find their natural place of communion with mortals. It is here where celestial fishes might be caught provided one brings the necessary credentials and qualifications of devotion, the necessary tackle and lures sanctified by the deities. If politicians and others holding positions of power and authority were required to apprentice first on wild, native trout streams I have no doubt they would find a cultivation of their own manners unequalled in any other setting.

A communion with Nature is a vital experience as Emerson and Thoreau made clear. What those like Al Gore are preaching has little to do with such a communion. Such a thing is not found by going “green,” it is impossible in the cities and becomes increasingly impossible for most to experience as the teeming millions of people worldwide demand food and housing for the drones while workers diminish in numbers. There is no legitimate preaching of any green “gospel” without a corresponding limiting of numbers making demands upon our planet’s diminishing natural resources, the cathedrals of forests and other wild environments.

The point is made in “Soylent Green” and stories like “No Blade of Grass,” that our planet is suffering from the uncontrolled breeding of unproductive mouths, something entirely ignored by those in power for the sake of gaining more power. Leaving off the breeding of animals for slaughter would certainly help, but it isn’t going to happen short of catastrophic events. Nor is it likely humans least likely to contribute to the planet’s well-being are going to leave off the breeding of more unproductive mouths short of catastrophic events.

In the meantime, our own part of the planet, America, is suffering mightily from a lack of attention to what is being done by the greed and avarice of politicians and their corporate masters in despoiling our own environment, the destruction of our educational system, our national forests and parks and so much more. But I don’t hear Al Gore crying out for securing our borders or preaching birth control among those least likely to contribute to any cultivation of quality lives and manners. We the People continue to wait in vain for leadership that will put America and Americans first. What we get are those that hypocritically express their “concern” for world conditions without proving their concern for America.

It’s a whimsical thought, this casting of my line in hope of catching celestial fishes; but I think my chances better than the vain prayers of those who believe the gods are going to intervene for America without our first cultivating a better class of citizens and leaders. Speaking of which, along with politicians those like Bill Gates, Oprah, and other celebrities might turn their attention first to the America that made them wealthy and make our nation their priority.