The River Why

[first lines]

Gus:
The surface of the Earth is 30% land and 70% water. A new born baby is composed of 70% water and 30% everything else. I guess this means that life and water are inseparable. A human child at birth under goes a ritual almost identical to that inflicted upon the trout at death. The fish is whacked on the head, thus putting it out of its misery. The infant is whacked on the behind, thus initiating the end to its misery.

Gus:
When most kids were making college plans, I didn't bother. I figured the only institution my grades would get me in was the Oregon State Penn.

H2O:
Augustine, you call yourself a fisherman?

Gus:
I call myself Gus.

Gus:
What can you say after you've spontaneously cremated your parent's prize fish in the fireplace? The only thing that came to my mind was, goodbye.

Gus:
There's just nothing like the feel of a trout dancing through the river, making your pole pulse like a heart in your hands. It does to your hands what dreams of eternity do to your heart. And yet, I killed the trout. It's strange to kill your dad's partner, but that's what did. I did it because the world is strange. Because the world does not allow you to make up your own rules based on how you would wish things to be. Because this is a world where no matter who you are, your happiness, your survival, is based on sacrifice. Sweet bleeding sacrifice.

Gus:
There's one thing you can say about nature: if you make one lousy rule to describe it, it will contradict you, even if it has to bust its ass to do so. And so what? If anybody ever discovered the real laws of nature, nature would rear back and strike him dead before he pass on the news.

Titus:
[about his dog] Descartes' immediate goal is humanity, as surely as ours is divinity.

Eddy:
Can I ask you a question? What are you doing here?

Gus:
It's my cabin, shouldn't I be asking you that?

Eddy:
No, not here here, I mean, *here*. Here. Alone.

Gus:
Fishing. What are you doing here?

Eddy:
Here here?

Gus:
Here here.

Eddy:
[with stare down] Fishing.

[last lines]

Gus:
People often don't know what they're talking about. But when they talk about love, they really don't know what they're talking about. The one sure thing you can say about love is that there isn't much you can say about it. Not that you shouldn't try, you can make analogies. Love is like a lot of things. One thing it's like is a trout stream. Try to capture a trout stream with a dam and you get a lake. Try to catch it in a bucket and you get a bucket of water. Put some under a microscope and you get a close-up look at some writhing micro cooties. But a trout stream is only a trout stream when it's flowing between its own banks. At its own pace. In its own sweet way.

Titus:
Why can't a duffer like me catch a fish? Isn't the answer obvious? Isn't it because at my present level of skill the fish would have to be so damned dumb and utterly unelusive as to not be worth catching? And how much more elusive should a thing as wondrous as a soul be? Fishermen should be the easiest of men to convince to search for their souls, because fishing is nothing but the pursuit of the elusive. How can you be so patient in searching for fish, and so hasty to write-off your soul because you can't see it?

Titus:
[about Gus' rod and reel] You and I agreed, did we not, that "rodney" is oblivious to everything, say, but some weight and varnish.

Gus:
We did.

Titus:
Therefore, does it follow that he is just as oblivious to Gus? Even though Gus is his maker. Even though Gus controls his destiny. Even though Gus' - let's go ahead and call it Gus' - is his essence.

Gus:
Yes, it follows.

Titus:
Then, therefore, is it possible that maybe you and I are just as oblivious to the presence of a creator? Just as oblivious to a controller of our destiny? Just as oblivious to our essence. An essence that wields you and I even more deftly than you wield rodney.

Crude Sign:
HANDMADE FLIES & RODS FOR SALE / FISHING TIPS FREE / SOME TRUE MAYBE

Gus:
Really, I was just wondering around looking for a place to swim and then... there was You... This beautiful girl... and you were fishing... and here goes nothing way you chucked that hazel pole into the water... and the way you dove in and swam after it... I just knew that you had some way of looking at things, some way of looking at life and the world which was exactly the way of looking at things that I've been trying to look at things... In my whole life I've only met two people who've ever looked at things anyway close to that way and that was my little brother and a philosopher, who talks to his dog! And with both of them it was love at first site too...

Gus:
Really, I was just wondering around looking for a place to swim and then... there was You... This beautiful girl... and you were fishing... and here goes nothing way you chucked that hazel pole into the water... and the way you dove in and swam after it... I just knew that you had some way of looking at things, some way of looking at life and the world which was exactly the way of looking at things that I've been trying to look at things... In my whole life I've only met two people who've ever looked at things anyway close to that way and that was my little brother and a philosopher, who talks to his dog! And with both of them it was love at first site too... But I am not sorry... Because when you see the most amazing beautiful thing you've ever seen you don't think about what's right or polite or tell her to cover up... because you can't stop looking... you are just... you are just helpless...