Happy Easter everyone. A great man named Dickie Dunn once said, "I was just trying to capture the spirit of the thing Reg." That quote is a throwback to the great movie Slap Shot and a tribute to the late great Paul Newman. I, like Dickie, am also trying to capture the spirit of the thing. And that thing happens to be Easter. So I am following up with another feel good article that I came across the other day. Do yourself a favor and read the full article here.
Retired Navy Captain Ed Nicholson has put together something that I find pretty incredible, and something that I can relate too on a couple different levels. He has put together a foundation that seeks to rehabilitate wounded soldiers through fly fishing. The Project Healing Waters website can be found here.
Now I am not even going to pretend I can relate to what these wounded soldiers are going through. However, I feel as though being in the military gives me the ability to relate to their situation a little more. Maybe it just makes my empathy a little more real. I also relate to this story because I used to call myself a fly fisherman. I grew up camping with my Mom, Dad, and Brother in Oregon and we would always go fly fishing. I have some amazing memories from those days and I look forward to continuing them after my own service. I continued fly fishing in college in Colorado, but when I moved to New Jersey I stopped. So while I cannot truly call myself a fly fisherman today, I am a fly fisherman at heart that fully appreciates the serene and soothing effects of fly fishing and just being amongst the glory of nature.
I am always amazed by people like Ed and their ability to just pick up and do something astonishing for other people. I can only hope that one day people will describe me in the same light.
"The demons of war, you just don't set them aside," says Nicholson, 67. "But once you get out on the river, the serenity is incredibly healing."
While recovering from cancer surgery at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in 2004, Nicholson witnessed wounded and disabled men and women -- many of them amputees -- struggling with their injuries.
"Other than being in Vietnam and seeing people in the process of getting hurt, I never really had a full appreciation for the recovery part and what happened after they came home. My recovery was nothing compared to what they were facing. It planted the seed that maybe there's something I could do," Nicholson says.
Now I am not even going to pretend I can relate to what these wounded soldiers are going through. However, I feel as though being in the military gives me the ability to relate to their situation a little more. Maybe it just makes my empathy a little more real. I also relate to this story because I used to call myself a fly fisherman. I grew up camping with my Mom, Dad, and Brother in Oregon and we would always go fly fishing. I have some amazing memories from those days and I look forward to continuing them after my own service. I continued fly fishing in college in Colorado, but when I moved to New Jersey I stopped. So while I cannot truly call myself a fly fisherman today, I am a fly fisherman at heart that fully appreciates the serene and soothing effects of fly fishing and just being amongst the glory of nature.
I am always amazed by people like Ed and their ability to just pick up and do something astonishing for other people. I can only hope that one day people will describe me in the same light.
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