Fish Blues - A Parable

I sat with an elder fisherman down at the shore the other day and as we looked out on the water he said….

I got the fish blues,

Not bluefish, fish blues

But real giant tuna-sized fish blues

But tuna aren’t blue, I said to him …..

Nor are bluefish for that matter. They’re more sparkly and shiny…. both of them… really, he said.

Without looking away from the water, I nodded in agreement.

I should tell you why I have the fish blues, he said

 “Even tho fish aren’t blue, I added.

Yes, he replied.

You see I was born a fisherman and I will die a fisherman

I started as a son of a sailor you know? And he died a sailor.

Sailed the bright blue sea his whole life…he never got the fish blues.

Okay,  I said. But what does that have to do with you having the fish blues? Not the bluefish fish blues but the real giant tuna sized fish blues.

Even tho fish aren’t blue, he stated

Yes, I said, impatiently.

Well, I’m getting to that, he said.

And as he picked up a piece of frayed rope from the dock with his frail gnarled hands, he continued , "Well even though I was a son of a sailor I always wished I was a fisherman." 

And not being a fisherman, I felt the fish blues, not the giant tuna sized fish blues, mind you  but the fish blues none-the-less. I had to do something because no one wants to be fish blue for too long.

"Okay so you became a fisherman to not have the fish blues?"  I asked.

"Yup!" he said.  

"But you just said you have the fish blues now, not the bluefish fish blues but giant tuna-sized fish blues." 

"You see," he said, "I got into fishing like everyone else. I crewed on a boat right here in this harbor and earned enough money to buy my own boat. And every day I’d set out on a dark morning fishing for cod, haddock, pollock, halibut, monk, skate, mackerel, anything that swam in the ocean.  And every night I would bring my catch back to this small community. I took a lot of fish from the sea." 

"Oh , okay. So you got the giant tuna-sized fish blues, not the fish blues or the bluefish fish blues because you didn’t never caught a giant tuna?" I asked, confused.

"No, that is not why I have the giant tuna fish-sized blues, not because I didn’t catch a giant tuna, I caught many." 

" In fact, I had an abundance of catches, millions of pounds of fish throughout my career. I was a free man working the sea." 

" I had a good life, because the sea was the provider. I worked hard and I was able to marry my love, buy a house, raise  children, send them to college, live in this beautiful seaside town. "  

" When fish weren’t running like the good old days, I made adjustments.

And when the government told me how, when, where and what to fish and I became less free, but I adjusted and kept fishing." 

" So that’s why you got the giant tuna-sized fish blues, not the fish blues or the bluefish fish blues, you weren’t as free? ", I asked.

" Nope,"  he said. "Never had the fish blues, not the blue fish fish blues nor the giant tuna-sized fish blues when I was at sea." 

" Than why old man?  It sounds like you had a successful life going out to sea, you caught a lot of fish, met a lot of challenges, created a good life. That doesn’t sound like fish blues, not the blue fish blues nor giant tuna-sized fish blues to me." 

He turned and looked at me with his steel blue eyes and as they started to water he turned away, looking out over the harbor and said, "With all the sea gave me, everything I needed and wanted. My way of life. My fortitude and bravery, strength and dignity. My wealth and place in my community. I can never, ever, give anything to the her in return.

And with that he pick himself up, and walked away from the shore.

A stage at Stage

6 am,

Dec 6, 2014 , Stage Harbor, Chatham.

Sitting in a familiar place, not feeling a part of it for the first time in my life. A place I have lived and work, a place where my ancestors lived and worked. The shoreline and docks of Stage Harbor. 

A production company has created another world here for a movie. A Disney film -based on a actual event that occurred in Chatham decades ago- the biggest Untied States Coast Guard small boat rescue ever. The movie, The Finest Hours. 

It’s a drizzly morning with mild temperatures and I am surrounded by a world of friendly and polite strangers- set designers, electricians, carpenters, handlers and managers. Gypsy-esque folks from all travels of life.  I wonder, after spending a week with them, do they ever have a real moment in their life or do they travel from project to project building a reality that is based upon plans designed by a preconceived notion of what should be, living in a perpetual world of planning? Their perspective is the reality and this is the reality I am surrounded by. 

The crews arrived last week in mass. Trucks, cranes, wind machines, boats, gear, paints and props and the artisans and pre-production workers who proceeded to stripped down the dock, remove fishing gear and eclectic possessions to recreate a look of a 1950s  Chatham Fish Pier, fitted with coal bins, wooden lobster pots, ropes and gear. Ironically as this area is one the last in town not to be rehabbed to look like someone else's perspective of  Chatham by the sea.  now, after a week of decorating the dock looks like it always has, except more cohesive, precise and muted in color. The area will be the back drop for film scenes, movie stars, and about a 100 local extras. 

This is day one of filming in the Stage Harbor-area. I hear today's plan is to film out at the entrance of the harbor. The collective properties at the junction of Stage Harbor and Champlain Rd are the jumping off point for the days filming out near Hardings Beach Light and the cut.  

It is not yet sunrise. A floodlight washes over the shoreline next door. It’s quiet, except for the whispered directions of a handful of overseers, beeping trucks and the hum of a pontoon boat at the  adjacent town landing.  

A lone Chatham police office stands watch in the parking lot. It starts to rain.