(Click here for a video of John reading today’s Catch.)
Today’s Catch comes from a text I received last night from my daughter, Anne, who is an ER doctor in Hawaii and an avid surfer.
So I surfed this VERY local spot called “Tracks” this afternoon into the evening…
It was SOOO fun!!
I made many friends! Especially one local old dude who hated EVERYONE! No joke… He was yelling at everyone in the lineup… screaming about Hawaii and how all the white people have stolen his land, etc.
I befriended him.
He told me that I was a “peculiar” and amazing person … an instant “aura”… and that I “could make friends anywhere I go.”
He literally said “I am mean to everyone, but I can’t be mean to you … and that’s gotta say something.“ He even gave me his dinner!
I later found out that I stitched his head up five years ago in the hospital. That made him even more stoked. He has six children. I can pretty much surf “Tracks” whenever now…
Woop! woop!
And then she writes this:
I love finding light and compassion in guarded/angry humans. It’s one of my favorite things I do by accident.
What does this say about overcoming meanness, animosity and anger? What does this say about making friends with your enemies? What does this say about what is needed so much in our world right now, with so many factions and so much anger and separation? This man said that Anne could make friends with anybody because she made friends with him.
So it sounds like it’s up to us. Instead of complaining about how bad the world is, how about changing it one person at a time? This guy seemed literally impossible, but not to Anne.
What she’s saying here is that she finds value in everyone. She has treated literally thousands of people and most of them while not at their best. She says she finds value in people by accident, but I think it’s all in how she sees people. Beauty is in the eye of the Lord. You see what you look for.
Everybody out there on the waves saw a mean angry guy who wished they would all go away. I would have steered clear of somebody like that. But Anne saw someone different.
John Fischer The Catch 
“So it sounds like it’s up to us. Instead of complaining about how bad the world is, how about changing it one person at a time?” to which I’ll add Amen!
Anne forced him to re-think his position on white people in Hawaii. She didn’t argue against bigotry or try to condemn him for it. She didn’t defend the history of how the USA acquired Hawaii. She befriended him. No arguing needed. Props to Anne for knowing how to let her light shine before others. No doubt it was the Lord’s light within her that was the “aura” he described.
Amazing story. Their is a lead who use to work in Lodging that just about all the women could not get along with and screaming over a week ago about how impossible she was on many occasions. This lady never was that way with me whether as a housekeeper or lead supervisor. I ran into her a few days ago in the Base Exchange. She had her Grand daughter along with her. We talked for a bit. Just goes to show some people are one way with some and sometimes another with many. But, thru the Grace of God and his Son Jesus its the best when a person is that pleasant one with you or myself. Great story of Anne’s example of making a friend with someone who would appear to be not likely to ever have a friend, but, its all in the faith.
👍💕💖