Red Dory

"The Red Dory . It’s about a young boy who spends the summer with his grandfather, who is a professional fisherman. The boy is about 10 years old and I was about 10 when I was reading it, and an avid fisherman. We used to go out to Annapolis and down to Carolina and fish. I got to go deep-sea fishing with my uncle ­– that is what he did for a living. In the book, they catch a beautiful sailfish. His grandfather says, “The beauty is in the fight – bringing it in, letting it go, bringing it in, letting it go”. He taught the youngster how to do it, and the youngster worked really hard. They came in that night and celebrated. It was really an exciting thing. The man who lived next door to his grandfather did not fish. His granddaughter was visiting him, who was the same age as the boy. They were friends. They were sitting on the dock, and they asked permission to take the boat out, just to row. And the boy said, “How come you and your grandfather don’t fish?” She said, “I’m not supposed to talk to you about it”. And the boy said, “I don’t understand, it’s great fun, you want to come with us?” And she said, “No I don’t”. So the boy got curious and said, “You should see it! He really fought and we fought”. And she said, “Why do you think he was fighting?” And the boy said “I don’t know”. And she said, “He was probably fighting to get free”. And the boy said, “I guess so”. And she said, “If you were on the hook, would you fight to get free?” He said, “I suppose so”. And she said, “Do you think the hook hurts them?” And he said, “I never thought of it”. And she said, “Think of it now. Do you think the hook hurts them?” He said, “Maybe it does, it must”. And she said, “Then don’t you think that, if you’re going to catch it, that it would be better for them to just bring it up rather than having them fight?” And he said, “Yes, but the fun is in the fighting”. And she said, “The fun for whom?” And he said, “The fun for us”. And she said, “But what about the fish? What is he going through? How many times does he have to fight? Why does he have to fight so hard, when in the end he’s going to lose?” And so the boy comes back from this boat ride with an entirely different attitude about what it must be like to have to fight for your life and to fight to exhaustion for your life. When I was reading what the little girl was saying, I remember saying out loud, “Yes. I wonder”. And my father came in and he said, “What are you wondering about?” And I had him read the page. I remember he started crying. I think it was the first time he understood. But for me it was a breakthrough book, because somebody put into words what I couldn’t. I loved that book. How many have I got left?"