My Pilgrimage, Chapter Twenty-Six: Fishing Themes
By Michael Moriarty
web posted August 14, 2017
Enter Stage Right has a two-week vacation coming up!
Sharing my opinion once a week is so enjoyable that I really don’t need that much rest from what is definitely not an arduous task. However, our editor most justifiably does need a rest! His real first love is not editing the opinions of other people. It’s fishing!
This fact, of course, has driven me to thinking how like fishing writing political articles can be.
Yes!
A topic to discuss doesn’t always come bouncing into my boat all by itself. Although sometimes it miraculously does!
Most of the time, I just have to go fishing.
I look over the huge lake, the ocean of human activity ‘round the world and eventually, within a seven day period, something strikes me as important enough to write about.
This last week of the editorial year for Enter Stage Right?
It’s fishing!
The years I’ve spent with our editor, Steve Martinovich, have made me an admirer of fishermen.
No, I have no wonderfully unforgettable memories of my few bouts with a hook and line. A few bloodied fingers and the universally disliked smell of fish drying in a boat… but something to look forward to?!
The side-dishes to fishing?!
The view of a lovely lake!
The sky!!
The surrounding forests, birds and, in the blessings of British Columbia, the mountains?!
YES!
So!
Fishing as an excuse to get back to where we first came from: the wilderness!
And Man’s earliest and most vital obligation: to feed himself and his family!
You don’t get closer to the fundamentals of life than when you are fishing and hunting.
In that perspective, my vocation now, pursued with the same intensity that Adam fed Eve with, is hunting and fishing for words and notes for my nine operas!
These growing obsessions of mine are actually the blessings of a profoundly privileged life on Earth!
And it was entirely the fault of my psychiatrist, Dr. Henry Pinsker.
After viewing my satirical play, The Ballad of Dexter Creed, a comically critical view of the theater critic, John Simon, Dr. Pinsker suggested that opera, given my own musical propensities, might be a far more fruitful pursuit than trading bitter barbs about the unavoidable reality of theater criticism.
As an obvious fan of New York’s Metropolitan Opera, he was absolutely right.
However, the initial inspiration for my nine opera series has been the legendary anti-Semitic genius, Richard Wagner.
I am certain that without the German popularity of Richard Wagner’s loathing for anything and anyone Jewish, The Third Reich and Adolf Hitler never would have happened.
Oh, yes!
I intend to roast Richard Wagner on a spit that will, perhaps and, should the Almighty agree, be over 25 hours long.
Hopefully, my Contra-Wagner operas will haunt the very stages that also held the very brilliant tenors and prima-donnas that sang Tristan and Isolde.
The bass-baritones that have ruled as Wagner’s Wotan’s.
So, despite taking my psychiatrist’s advice far more seriously than perhaps he ever expected, I haven’t given up my irrepressible penchant for satire.
My prelude to all of this Grand Opera is here.
My Symphony # 5 which leads you off on this journey through my music is as good an introduction to my soul as any.
If you find your journey through the many venues of my 77gelsomina Youtube oasis worth a complete visit?!
God bless you!
Many mysterious journeys await you!!
If not?!
God bless you anyway!!
I’m much too busy with my music to pout about it. 
Michael Moriarty is a Golden Globe and Emmy Award-winning actor who starred in the landmark television series Law and Order from 1990 to 1994. His recent film and TV credits include The Yellow Wallpaper, 12 Hours to Live, Santa Baby and Deadly Skies. Contact Michael at rainbowfamily2008@yahoo.com. He can be found on Twitter at https://twitter.com/@MGMoriarty.