Leeson's "Best of Times, Worst of Times"

April 5, 2008 By: Marshall Cutchin

Led Leeson has written some of the most beautiful essays in fly fishing (witness The Habit of Rivers and Jerusalem Creek), but lately he has become quite adept at observance of the sport itself, and especially how we adapt to the accelerating pace of change. In this month’s Gray’s Sporting Journal, he creates a long and rich list of the good and the bad. “When we don’t view the past in sepia tints through a Vaseline-smeared lens, we are apt, as the Stones say, ‘to paint it black.’ But Dickens was right: Human experience is equivocal. The Dark Ages had their bright spots, and the good ol’ days weren’t really all that good. From the French Revolution to fly fishing, history happens in shades of gray.”
Read a longer sample of Leeson’s writing in “A Moveable Feast” on MidCurrent.