Yesterday the Baltimore Sun ran a nifty piece celebrating the 93rd birthday of Lefty Kreh – Birth of a legend: Lefty Kreh turns 93, but prefers to celebrate his mentor Joe Brooks.
In our phenomenally egocentric, selfie-obsessed, promote yourself world, seeing a crusty old fly fisher defer to his long-departed mentor (and a name unknown to a host of today’s younger fishers at that) on a day which could have been all about Lefty is so out of character with today’s norm, the object lesson(s) here is/are stunningly easy to miss.
Love him or despise him (some of the Tenkara crowd still have a burr under their saddle about Lefty, others simply have no intellectual curiosity about the history of the sport), LK’s durability and relevance, his impressive resume of worldwide travels and adventures, and his mastery of the fly fishing world evolved in part due to his patient tenacity, his willingness and hunger to learn, and his seeking out mentors like Joe Brooks along the way.
Despite many wishing it otherwise, Instagram and Faceplant don’t make authentic icons – hard work, a bit of luck along the way, and genuine, shoulder-to-shoulder, eyeball-to-eyeball time with people (pre-digital social networking) do.
