MAN ON THE LAKE

  David loved to take the boat out in the very early morning while the mist was still on the water and most other people were still asleep.  He loved best being alone on the water. Ella had been a grand fishing partner, but she wanted to go later in the day, in the sunlight and warmth. If he went in the morning, he went alone. He did not fish for the large fish although he caught them sometimes and enjoyed fight.  He released all the Black Bass.  He did not think they tasted as sweet as the smaller panfish like the yellow perch or the bluegill, and the Bass were not as sustainable.  He did take pickerel because he liked the taste.  He never minded the bones. The birds and then distant barking dogs seemed to sing away the mist.  

David liked to play live poker with friends or in casinos.   He liked the experience of being playfully engaged with randomness.  He thought it helped him better understand his life and how he interpreted the probablilities of life.  And he especially liked that poker taught him that when hard or wonderful things happened, it was not all his responsibility or his personal success, but in a large part it was luck,   Using common sense and good judgement helped. Staying aware of ?? helped. But often the best of his good life was just based on luck. He could see that humans loved to take risks.  They willingly, sometimes joyfully, sought to interact with randomness. All games were like that. Poker just created real consequences, but only risked money and not life itself.  It was not mountain climbing. Fishing was also indulging randomness with almost no risk to the angler, but life and death risks for the fish. David thought it was a fine activity, o...

 David  was more comfortable in groups of women than groups of men because he did not like sports, and he did like cooking.  He best liked mixed groups that could talk about books or restaurants or spices or fishing or gambling in Vegas and where sexual orientation little mattered. He had always thought of himself as egalitarian.  Sex equity was the goal. However, in his aging years, women had become more militantly against the patriarchy.   They felt it was fine to torch it.   They blamed the state of the world on old, white men. Women who in no other context would not have tolerated stereotyping by age, or color, or gender could easily demonize old white men. David felt it was sad. Then too he loved to watch women.  Make love, not war seemed a fine value. He lusted easily, and found delight in the faces of pretty girls and in the beauty of women in life and in art.   Generally, he kept those feelings to himself as they were not we...

 Butch lived just down the road.  He lived by himself and stayed to himself except to visit David almost on a daily visit. Butch said very little.  David would reflect on something and whether it was just a duck that was on the fallen willow or was some philosophical concept that David was mulling over, Butch would just listen and then he'd say, "Yep" And that was it. However, David felt fine when Butch visited and poured a cup of coffee.  Dave liked Butch's disheveled look of old jeans and plaid shirts, he liked the uncombed, uncut hair.  Butch was easy company.