Catch And Release, A Metaphor for Life

I was watching my granddaughters hockey game the other night when this phrase suddenly entered my mind. The girls are typical of kids this age in their skillset as hockey players. As individuals they vary in their strengths. There are tall and short. Some skate well and others not as well. There are some with great stick handling techniques while others are still learning. And then there are those who appear to have what I call the hockey brain. This is about having an innate ability to understand the game as a chess player would understand the chess board. My husband called it “seeing the whole ice”. Like a good chess player, they can see the game a few moves ahead.

Hockey is a fast paced game and if your opponent is putting on the pressure panic mode can set in quite quickly. This is when mistakes are made. Panic passes are often intercepted. Players get physical, drawing penalties. And sometimes everything they practice over and over again leaves their brains in stressful moments. After the last game I realized why the term “catch and release” came to mind. You have to do one before the other. Always, I saw many instances where the girls tried to make plays before having full possession of the puck. Or they waited for a pass while the other team intercepted rather than rush to it. I realized in each instance where they made mistakes, they were thinking about what they were going to do next. Rather than focusing on the current task.

The term may relate to fishing but it is something in every sport. In baseball we teach kids to catch then throw. When they are young they are excited and often miss the catch because they are thinking about the throw. I watch young people at basketball practice while I wait to watch my daughter play ball hockey. The biggest errors seem to be disconnects between the catch and the shot. I took Kung Fu for many years and the greatest lesson was block then punch. If you aren’t defending properly against your opponent you’re going to catch a few fists in the face. It is true that with practice we can do things faster but the skill must be perfected first. In team sports nothing could be more important. A team is a bunch of individuals. A good team or a winning team is one that works as an individual, incorporating each persons unique skills.

I am a dreamer of sorts. An ideas person in many ways. I often fail to follow through. I am good at the catch part of life. I have the idea. I see the vision of the end. It’s the doing that often stumps me. Lots of people live life that way. Looking down the road to a time when all of their problems in life are gone. Life will be fine. Yet missing out on today. There is this magical time in life somewhere off in the future when things are all going to be great. Yet many never get to that period in life. They spend all of their years plugging away, often at things they don’t like. Just to get to the good part. They aren’t focusing on the catch portion of their dreams. What do they really want out of life? The answer to that isn’t what will happen 10, 20, 30 years down the road. The answer to that is right now. Yep. The catch is the answer. It’s the good part.

A fisherman who casts a line, feels the tug, battles the fish and finally pulls in the biggest guy he has ever caught, takes a picture and puffs his chest as he wipes his sweaty brow. That is the joy of the moment. The thrill. The excitement. The pride not just in the fish but in winning the battle. And then comes the bitter sweet moment. Releasing the one who lost back into the water to live to fight another day. The fisherman cracks a beer and relives the moment with friends. But there is a melancholy. He did it. Now what? Well, he goes fishing again. Because it is the thrill of the catch that brings him satisfaction.

I have so many plans for the future. A future that is getting shorter and shorter. Some will be realized and many won’t. Every day I get up in the morning and the first thought is “what am I going to do today”. Is this the day I finally start to recover my comfy chair by the window? I bought the material two years ago. Or is this the day I really get in some serious work on the never ending novel I am kind of writing? Or will I go for a walk. Bake some bread. Clean out a closet. Lunch with a girlfriend. Hit the gym. No matter what it is, at the end of the day I find I fall into bed happy and weary. Resting up for the morning which may or may not come. And that is okay because I have caught all the things I needed to catch up to this point. I have learned that is what is joyful. Not the future end point. But right this second. This moment. This catch.