Teleological

Some part of him thought it was cruel, so he replaced the fishhook with the suction cup from the comic "I'm High" sign that hung on the wrecked cockpit window. He tried various wrist techniques to make the suction cup attach itself to the fish that swam all around, but he couldn't make it work. He gave up on that. He tried to catch them with his hands instead. They were too quick and too slippery. "This is it," he thought to himself "This is where I compromise. This is where I abandon my foolish principles and face the ugly, violent facts of life. I'll be just like those straw man pacifist characters in action movies that learn their lesson and become bloodthirsty killers by the end of the movie. I'll be just like the coward of the county in that Kenny Rogers song." He felt sad and defeated as he threaded the line through the eye of the hook. "Maybe, when this is over, I can get them back, those principles. Maybe it's just a necessity of the situation." Some part of him died in those next few days, but the rest of him stayed alive.

Comments

[Heather Anne]

Had his ship been wrecked?!

[scott]

Plane wreck.

[Caitlinator]

It's sort of interesting; one would assume he was catching fish to eat them and that in order to eat them he would kill them first. I wonder why he thought the fish hook would have been cruel if he was going to kill the fish anyway? Perhaps that is the irony.

[peefer, in the land of snow and ice]

If I was Mr. Karma, he would neither gain nor lose any points.

[Karindira]

I am assuming he didn't just want them for company.

[Susan]

If he had only seen the banana tree on the beach.