​Fish, Cut Bait or Be Bait

Uncle Shine, Granny and Grandpa Tharpe

I will never forget her expression as Granny Tharpe stared down at me while I was laying in the bottom of an old beaten up jon boat feeling sorry for myself one morning. I was laying down there using an old bailing can for a pillow and weaving a tapestry of woe.

It was mid-summer back in the sixties like a lot of my memories, and her expression was one of intense aggravation flavored with just a dollop of admiration. She had put up with me and my ways for a little over an hour figuring that a seven year old could never out last her; but when it came to pouting, nobody could do it better than me. So after a gallant effort, she finally had enough of the contest and played the Granny card. She looked down at me, whacked my leg with that little gator paddle of hers and said:

“I’ve had it with you and your whining this morning. Either fish, cut bait or be bait. One way or the other, shut up, you’re scaring the fish.”

Now my Granny loved me to death. I was by far her favorite grandchild, and I’ve always said that she would say as much; but from time to time, I would get in a mood where nothing would satisfy me. Then I would sit around and grumble about everything. I wouldn’t do anything about anything, mind you; but Lord have mercy, I could complain with the best of them.

On this particular morning Granny, Grandpa and I had headed down to Wewa to do something that I loved almost as much as whining. We were heading down to fish for fresh water mullet and largemouth bass off of the Dead Lakes Dam. If you’re ever interested, just ask me and I tell you the secret to catching fresh water mullet off of a spillway.

Now there had been a big rain upstream, it seems; so when we got to the dam, the water was too high to suit Granny and Grandpa. So they decided to head down to Willis Landing, rent a jon boat and check out the bream and shell cracker action on the Chipola River.  The problem was they didn’t check with me, and as much I loved fishing on the river, I preferred the dam to the landing any day high water or no.

When Granny threatened to tie an anchor line around my waist and throw me in, I was expressing my objections to the fishing spot, but mostly I just had my feelings hurt for want of consultation.

My means of expression was complaining about the pole, the line, the hook, the sinker, the worms, the crickets, the boat, my companions, the color of the sky, and anything else that presented itself.

I was doing anything but fishing; and nothing irritated my Granny more than driving to Wewa, renting a boat, digging worms and then watching her grandson waste the day fussing and fuming instead doing what he ought to be doing and fishing. So she told me to do something worthwhile in her own unique way.

“You know how to fish.” she said, “So fish and stop bothering me with your blubbering.”

Well she actually used one of her favorite lines, which is not particularly suited for fancy church writing, but it had to do with a pot for those of you old enough to be in the know.

It has been a lifetime it seems since that summer’s morning with my Granny, but I can still pout with the best of them when things don’t work out the way I think they ought to.

This past year, 2020, has been a year of things not working out like they ought to. We’ve all been thrown into a tizzy, as my momma would say; and between that and the fear of the unknown and the fear the known, many of us are a mess right now. Lots of folks simply don’t know which way to turn or who to believe, and because of that, they are frightened and paralyzed.

Many in the Church of Christ have hunkered down to wait it out, and I suppose that’s fine, if that is what they need to do; but I can’t help going back to that summer’s morning and finding a lesson there. A lesson taught by one of the wisest people I have ever been blessed to meet, my Granny Tharpe.

I have asked in the past, “What Would Granny Say?” As 2020 is slowly fading behind us in the rear view mirror, I have been asking myself that same question time and time again. In so many words, I believe that she would simply say this: “You’ve got one life, use is as you wish, but please don’t waste it.”

No, that’s not it. It loses too much in translation. What Granny would actually say is simply this. “You’ve got one life. Fish, cut bait or be bait, you choose.”

Ps 138:7-8
7 Though I walk in the midst of trouble, you preserve my life; you stretch out your hand against the anger of my foes, with your right hand you save me.
8 The LORD will fulfill his purpose for me; your love, O LORD, endures forever.
NIV

That you can believe.
​
Pastor Tony

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