"Play him!" I yelled, "Move you leg up and down to take up slack!"

"Are you crazy? Help me outta here!" Spider shouted.

After a few minutes, Digger and I found that by tilting Spider's huge torso at various angles, we could play Old Granddad fairly well. It was quite a fight, but pretty noisy, what with Spider filling air with sputtering and cussing. And it got worse when I accidentally stepped on Spider's fingers and he let go of boom—taking off downstream.

I had to think fast. I took my pole and cast in Spider's direction. As luck would have it, I snagged big guy's pant leg on first cast. Spider let out a yelp when I yanked back to set hook, but hook stuck.

Spider did a set of ungainly splits in water, with me pulling on one leg and a 40-pound catfish pulling on other. I was impressed with big guy's agility, but it didn't seem like right time to bring it up at moment.

After about 30 minutes, we heard a giant pop, and Spider's legs suddenly sprang back into something resembling a normal position. But Digger and I both gasped, because Old Granddad had gotten away! Although we were totally disappointed, Spider didn't even seem to notice.

We finally managed to reel Spider back onto boom—no mean feat, considering I was only using 10-pound test. His pant leg was shredded, and it seems that he'd lost a boot when Old Granddad made his escape. But our friend was safe, but funny was, Spider never even bothered to thank me for saving his life.

Oh, well, some guys are like that, I guess—ungrateful.

© 2004. Gary E. Anderson. All rights reserved.

Gary Anderson is a freelance writer, editor, ghostwriter, and manuscript analyst, living on a small Iowa farm. He’s published more than 500 articles and four books. He’s also ghosted a dozen books, edited more than 30 full-length manuscripts, produced seven newsletters, and has done more than 800 manuscript reviews for various publishers around the nation. If you need writing or editing help, visit Gary’s website at www.abciowa.com.

When you put these two words together, it means that American public will not stand for morality or ethics in their home.

We sure have come a long way, baby. My only question is, how do we get back? Was it really necessary to come this far?

One thing missing in this whole situation is lack of humor in family.

I have come to believe in what I call, "laughter therapy." This is ability to get yourself back into good humor, and believe me, many people are in a bad humor.

As a pastor, I guess I see this side of people more than other professionals. The violence in home today is a reflection of this bad humor. Parents are in danger of being murdered by their own children in their own homes.

Just ask any schoolteacher and he or she will tell you that schoolyard, once filled with excited voices of innocent children at play, is now modern war zone in our country.

People today are filled with rage, and blame rests with home. It is in home people learn skills enabling them to cope with outside world.

The reason so many people are not able to cope with society in general is that they have never learned to cope within confines of modern family unit.

I think that is why God designed family unit as He did.

Try as we might, we can never improve on God's creation. An important thing we need to develop within home environment is ability to laugh.

People do not know how to laugh or what to laugh at. Many are laughing at wrong things.

Laughter is important. God created us with an enormous capacity to laugh. What a shame so many people have yet to discover this great and wonderful gift from God.

It is responsibility of home, I believe, to cultivate a healthy sense of humor. The family that laughs together can face any situation.

As old saying goes, "Laugh and whole world laughs with you; cry and people wonder why you didn't get joke."

The Bible clearly instructs us, "To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under heaven ... A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance." (Ecclesiastes 3:1,4 KJV.)

The problem with many is that we do not know when to do what.

Again Bible says, "A merry heart doeth good like a medicine: but a broken spirit drieth bones." (Proverbs 17:22 KJV.)

A sick world needs some powerful medicine. It is my conviction that this hilarity begins in home.