Quality Time

When I was a young man of 15, My grandpa took me fishing.

Separated by a generation

We watched the Sunrise on the Columbia together, in equal awe.

That man gave me a revelation that day.

He said, "Son, You're doing life wrong. Stay in school, so you can get a good job.

Stick with the right crowd, and live life day by day.

I can see you are sad, but life isn't always this bad."

He taught me how to catch a sturgeon with a strip of shad on my hook.

We sat in that boat on the Columbia for most of that day, and I thought about a lot of things.

I experienced the thrills of fighting the Great White Goddess of the sea, with that old West Wind in my face.

I look back now and realize that all that lower back pain is what kept me sane.

My grandpa is right about many things I now see.

He taught me how to be a man... Just doing the best I can.

~Shawn M.J. Mann