It’s called fishing, not catching; journey/destination dichotomy

“It’s called fishing, not catching.”

People who have been around the sport of fishing for any length of time probably recognize this phrase. They may have even uttered it themselves, either to a novice angler or to a long-time expert. Maybe it has become their personal mantra, a reminder for those times they need to convince themselves anew that the joy of fishing lies in the pursuit, not necessarily the catch. This morning, I heard the interviewee say these words, as he tried to balance the mental demands of his life. He fished to relax amidst the stressors of his college football career. “It’s called fishing, not catching.”

The dichotomy between fishing and catching can also be helpful as we struggle to understand Parkinson’s Disease. As the reader might know, Parkinson’s Disease is caused largely by a depletion of dopamine in the brain. For whatever reason, some brains either don’t produce sufficient quantities of dopamine, or the existing dopaminergic pathways in the brain do not carry the dopamine through the bloodstream efficiently. The end result for people with Parkinson’s (PWP) is a reduced amount of dopamine and the symptoms that result from such a deficiency. These symptoms usually manifest themselves as “fishing” related, not “catching”.

When we dissect the fishing/catching pairing, we see that one exists in real time, while the other is a future hope or goal: a motivation. We can also make the same comparison between a journey and the resulting destination. In both of these examples, the first word represents the goal or wish. We tend to dream up a journey or a motivation, and then set to work with the belief that we can achieve that goal or arrive at the final destination. We might take elaborate pains to plan a fishing trip, knowing very well that we may not catch anything. True anglers are not bothered by this because, “A bad day fishing (pursuing), is better than a good day in the office” (producing tangibles). For the dopamine-challenged person, though, the motivation to imagine/create a project or plan a journey is often chemically absent. Without the proper amounts of dopamine, our brains may help us climb the mountain once we’re there. However, we may very well not be able to dream up, or imagine, that mountain before we get there.

One of the daily mountains I face is musical in nature. Because of my training as a concert pianist and arts presenter, I have lived a good portion of my life imagining and creating musical performances that would materialize a good 18-24 months in the future. In that space, I was able to imagine the end goal, and establish the short-term steps and deadlines that needed to be achieved in order to finalize the end product. The mental image of the final goal was enough to motivate me to carry out the daily work in order to accomplish what we were creating.

With a Parkinson’s brain and lack of dopamine, however, this type of executive function and long-term motivation is more difficult. PWP often lose interest in the things that used to bring them joy. We tend to approach new things with a kind of apathy that is uncharacteristic, and have trouble mustering up enough motivation to move forward with any plans. This can certainly be challenging, but not insurmountable. Yesterday, for example, I started playing slow movements that would serve as the basis for my next 30 days of writing. This type of project is based on the pursuit of beauty and the strengthening of my pianistic skills. It’s still too soon to tell, but I hope that this ongoing engagement with something I love will bring about noticeable improvement in my dopamine-induced activity levels. I’ve already surprised my wife and brother this morning by jumping up and announcing that I was going to make yogurt bread. The decisiveness and suddenness of my announcement seemed to startle them since they haven’t seen these qualities in me for many months. I created the image of delicious, warm yogurt bread right out of the oven, and set out to make that image a reality. This sequence of motivation and creation felt so good to me that I’d like to test it out in other areas of my life. Who knows? I might even plan and carry out a fishing trip!

727 words
Day 55: September 23, 2023
Success!