Dateline: The Midwest
“With optimism, you look upon the sunny side of things. People say, ‘Studs, you’re an optimist.’ I never said I was an optimist. I have hope because what’s the alternative to hope? Despair? If you have despair, you might as well put your head in the oven.”
― Studs Terkel
I am an eternal optimist.
It may be a fault, it may not be, but in the end, I believe in you, I believe in us.
I believe in the human race.
Believe good will win over evil, believe in love vs hate, believe that in all of us, some way down deeper than others, lies the soul of the creator.
Yep, an eternal optimist, so be it, but I believe it to be stronger today than it was 14 days ago when I packed up and left home to spend some time out here in the middle, out here between the two coasts.
Out here in the Midwest.
It began as the sun set on the Mississippi in La Crosse, Wisconsin, this is what I saw as I drove my rental car off the airport parking lot.
The next day I took a tour of downtown La Crosse, one of my favorite towns of this gig…
…fast forward a few days and I was on Interstate 90 heading west to South Dakota, a state that stretched from horizon to horizon…
…a place filled with magical rocks…
…and famous faces.
So I did what all of us out here did these last two weeks, I took pretty photos of rocks and grass, sunsets and buildings, straight lines and stone faces.
But within I still felt that I wasn’t truly telling the story of the Midwest, that I was missing something, and it bugged me, freaked me for days, until yesterday at the B.A.S.S. weigh-in event when what I missed pretty much jumped out at me.
It’s not about the rocks.
It’s not about sunsets or bricks and mortar.
Nor is it about granite faces.
What I missed was the human faces.
You.
“Our true nationality is mankind.”
― H.G.Wells
Stuff is stuff, may be pretty stuff, may be unusual stuff, but in the end, it’s just stuff.
Focus not on the pretty rocks but on those who stand on them, be they mature…
…or young…
Focus not solely on the rivers we fish, but also spend time with those who walk its shores…
…or fish from its piers.
It can’t be only about us, it has to also be about those who look to us, a so a huge thanks to the South Dakota B.A.S.S. Nation for all they have done to get us here, and all the nations of B.A.S.S. for being our backbone.
From me personally a huge thanks to South Dakota B.A.S.S. Nation member Troy Lantz and his daughter Katy who took me on an almost 800 mile tour of their state to show me it’s wonders…
…when in reality the greatest part of it was sitting with me in the car as we drove around.
In the past few days many folks have asked me what would be my favorite photo of the past couple of weeks, what photo out of the 617 that I have taken would be my favorite.
And I thought of rocks, and waves of grass.
And I thought of craved faces, buildings and places.
Thought of horizons and mountain lakes, all pretty and stunning, but when I closed my eyes and thought of all those photos, only one stood out…this one:
It is the photo of what we do and why we do it.
We use a fish to bring families together if just for a moment under a tree watching the live broadcast of our tournament.
And so to the Midwest thank you for the colors of the sunset and pretty rocks, thank you for the grasslands and roads that stretch to tomorrow.
And so to the Midwest thank you for the granite faces, but thank you even more for the faces of those who live here, Midwesterners, friendly, helping, kind people who help make us who we are.
For those who visit here, see the sights, take the tours but also take the time to meet the folks who live here.
For it is they who are the greatest natural resource I found in my two weeks here.
Hands down.
Talk to you in a few weeks from Maryland,
db
“You must not lose faith in humanity. Humanity is an ocean; if a few drops of the ocean are dirty, the ocean does not become dirty.”
― Mahatma Gandhi