Numenon Introduction

Steve, way offshore in Lake Michigan, aboard Numenon.

Welcome to my new blog, Numenon.  Numenon is the name of my boat, a 2003 Lund Fisherman.  I like (love?  need?) to fish, and Numenon has been an awesome, versatile and reliable tool for my fishing exploits over the last decade. 

I suspect this blog will be mostly about my fishing, but always with an underlying thread of what this might mean to me.  In the grand scheme of things, my fishing surely means little.  But on the scale of day to day existence, I think my passion for, and practice of fishing helps to define me, and makes me a more interesting person.  My family and personal acquaintances can form their opinions about this one way or the other and bear the consequences; cyber-friends can simply choose to stay or click elsewhere.

Naming a boat can be a daunting proposition.  In my opinion, the name should be appropriate, unique and timeless.  So how did I arrive at Numenon? 

One of my first assignments in college involved reading Aldo Leopold’s A Sand County Almanac.  From humble beginnings, Mr. Leopold became one of America’s earliest and foremost conservationists.  I’d like to think of his 1949 Almanac as a casual, yet thoughtful, journal regarding his land and his stewardship of it.  My professor demonstrated wisdom with this reading assignment, and I demonstrated my youth in not really getting it; but there was something in the book that stayed with me and caused me to re-visit it 18 or 20 years later.

That “something” was Leopold’s concept of “Numenon”.  You could spend some un-satisfactory time with a dictionary trying to define this term.  A current Google search might get you closer to Leopold’s meaning, which I take as spiritual and yet not mystical.  His alternative spelling of the term confuses the search for a definition and yet uniquely and appropriately individualizes its use.  I’ve incorporated “Numenon” to mean “the core essence of a system; if something cannot be removed or changed without altering or compromising the system within which the entity resides…that is the system’s distilled essence, its Numenon.”  I (think I) remember Leopold’s examples of a brook trout in a cold mountain stream, and the ruffed grouse of his pine barrens farm.  These systems would lose their identity, usefulness, value and interest without these keystone members.  There are other streams, other farms…but aren’t these systems more complete and interesting with the presence of the brookie or the grouse?  Aren’t our senses graced by their presence?

I’d like to think that I’m a good citizen, and I really do know that family matters are my top priority, so it seems kind of silly and selfish to assign my core essence to a boat or a hobby.  But I am kind of silly (and possibly selfish when it comes to fishing), and it was natural for me to name my boat (and now my blog???) Numenon.  If I am unique or interesting, if I have anything to widely share…it’s probably got something to do with fishing.  Take away my fishing or my boat; and I simply suspect I’m just not the same guy.

Ten years ago or so I shared a conversation along these lines with a friend.  A couple of years later, a third party asked him the meaning of my boat’s name.  “It’s a kind of mayfly,” he explained.  Oh, well.  His version is shorter, quicker, and serves the same purpose in a casual conversation.  It’s just not as complete or interesting.

Thanks for reading so far.