Hands

It only tangentially includes fly fishing, but Mike Lunsford’s tribute to the work of hands is thoughtful and eloquent. “The hands that had gripped a pickax in coal mine shafts as a teenager and had dipped enameled pans by the thousands until he walked out of the factory for the last time to retire, could tie the most precise and delicate knots in fishing line I ever saw, and they could gently dig the roots of mature ginseng from the soil while leaving behind the tiny hair-like remnants of younger plants yet to grow. His hands could skin and scale and scour, but they could pat my head, plant corn in arrow-straight rows, and perfectly cast a fly rod.” In the Terre Haute Star-Tribune.