Fishin’ with Jessica and Cindy

When I suggested to Mallory and Jessica (from Group Workcamps) that we should go fishing this coming week, I knew I should do some boat maintenance and fish-scouting in order to have a successful trip. Through various circumstances, Jessica (a Junior at Wheaton College) and Cindy (my wife, natch) came along on what was supposed to be the scouting and boat-shakedown trip.

It would be an understatement to say that things didn’t go exactly as planned. I made my first mistake when, after the boat motor didn’t start right away, I hooked up the electric trolling motor and pointed us away from shore. I figured that I’d get it started soon, and I didn’t want us drifting back onto land in the meantime.

My second mistake happened when, as I saw a really ominous black cloud heading in, I didn’t turn us back immediately. After all, it hadn’t rained around here for weeks!

So what happened? I never got the motor started, and we were overtaken by an ugly storm (with lightning) that blew us to a point midway between the launching ramp at the city park and the one at the Highway 58 landing. Along about the time that Jessica and I were swimming and pushing/pulling the boat along the shore, she laughingly reminded me that her mother had sent me an email thanking me for taking good care of her. Ouch!

There is a Latin phrase, in absentia parentis, that used to describe the responsibility of colleges and universities (no longer, unfortunately), and should still fit the church. In absentia parentis means that we look out for the children of other people even as we look out for our own. Even though I had offered to Jessica the chance to let Cindy take her back to the church and leave me to fix my mess, I really felt rotten later for letting her family down and getting her into this “adventure” just because I didn’t want to give up.

Well we did get the boat back home, Cindy and I had a brief fight about my poor judgement (it’s all better now), I ended up replacing Jessica’s rain-damaged cell phone (glad to do it, Jess), and the inside of my truck smells like a kennel (from water, not from any specific passenger).

Despite all of this, I had a really great time. Jess is such a great girl that she had me laughing most of the time instead of insanely clubbing my boat motor with the paddle, Chevy Chase-like. Still…

The bad decisions we make don’t usually affect us alone. My desire is to live and lead responsibly out of respect for those who work (and “fish”) with me and those who care about them.

P. S. - Tonight, after a little tinkering, the motor started on the second pull!

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July 23, 2006 · Filed Under Friends, Life

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