A man who puts down his bet and lets his life ride on that bet has got some guts ... a kind of straightforward courage that is a beacon when compared to someone who sits in front of a computer screen and imagines he has done a day's work with cautious analyses.
Fishermen and small farmers fall into this I'll-admit-it bias today... people with character and callouses and a willingness to wager without a safety net.
In England, as in the United States, fishing quotas have all but put the harvesters of the sea out of business. Why I should care about this is not entirely clear to me: In general, I don't much care for fish or eat it. I can make the wide-net arguments that accompany "overfishing" ... but still ... still I love the courageous, nothing-held-back spirit.
In the United States, as far as I can figure out, it is no longer possible to buy a real tomato in a supermarket. Agribusiness has figured out a way to create a tomato that can be harvested by machine ... a thicker skin and all that. It's smart business and makes for lousy tomatoes. The laborious process of picking by hand has been outflanked. The tenacious courage of squaring off against the uncertain elements ... well it's back-breaking work and who needs that, right? Better a well-pressed suit and "a careful analysis."
Without a safety net, mistakes and all, determination in the face a long odds ... I do admire it, even if I can't really define it. And I suppose I admire it in spiritual endeavor as well -- the straight-across willingness to gamble ... not as a means of looking good or seeking approval or improving anything but ...
Just because it's what "I" do.
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