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Casting and Mending shares the voices of breast cancer patients, veterans, and recovering addicts as they reflect on the often life-changing and life-affirming experience of fly fishing.Henry David Thoreau wrote, "Many men go fishing all of their lives without knowing that it is not fish they are after." That notion, that fishing is about more than catching fish - that it offers tranquility, reflection, and recovery - is at the heart of scores of programs across the United States that use fly fishing to promote physical and emotional healing. This book tells the story of several of these programs, including the voices of breast cancer patients, veterans, and recovering addicts as they reflect on the often life-changing and life-affirming experience of fly fishing. It also traces fishing in history and popular culture as a source of solace and redemption; explores the science of the healing effects of nature; and makes a case for fly fishing as an instance of "flow," an optimal experience that leaves a person stronger, more confident, and refreshed.
List of contents
Preface
Chapter 1: Diverter of Sadness and Calmer of Unquiet Thoughts-How fly fishing became therapeutic
Part 1. Therapeutic Fly Fishing for Women with Breast Cancer
Chapter 2: Cast, Mend-A morning with the river muffins
Chapter 3: Why Cast for Recovery? A surgeon's perspective on therapeutic fly fishing for women with breast cancer
Chapter 4: This Isn't Bowling for Recovery-The who, what, and why of a Casting for Recovery retreat
Chapter 5: In the Bad Rapids-Metaphors of fly fishing and cancer
Chapter 6: The Voices of Casting for Recovery-Five women speak about breast cancer, fly fishing, and hope
Part 2. Therapeutic Fly Fishing for Disabled Warriors
Chapter 7: Project Healing Waters Fly Fishing-Angling rehab for physical and invisible wounds
Chapter 8: Maintaining Balance-Casting on the lawn at Fort Drum
Chapter 9: OASIS
Chapter 10: Voices of Veterans-Veterans talk about combat, invisible wounds, and the solace of fly fishing
Part 3. Therapeutic Fly Fishing for Those Recovering from Addiction
Chapter 11: Moving Meditation-How fly fishing complements treatment for addiction
Chapter 12: Rainbow's End Recovery Center
Chapter 13: Voices of Recovery-Addicts reflect on the restorative powers of nature and fly fishing
Part 4. How Fly Fishing is Therapeutic
Chapter 14: The Green World-How being in nature heals us
Chapter 15: The Flow of Fly Fishing-The therapeutic benefits of optimal experience
Chapter 16: Conclusion
Acknowledgments
About the Author
Colophon"
About the author
Pat Scanlon is a professor emeritus in the School of Communication at Rochester Institute of Technology, where he taught for thirty-three years. He has published on a variety of topics, from Elizabethan literature to plagiarism to fiber optics. His recent articles on local history and fly fishing have appeared in several magazines. An avid fly fisherman, he volunteers as a river helper for Casting for Recovery, which offers free retreats for women with breast cancer. He lives in Rush, New York, with his wife, Joanne.
