Fishing as a metaphor

I don't know anything about fishing from first hand experience. Anything I know comes from movies. Even people I know who have told me about fishing fail to say it in a way that has compelled me to participate or with enough illustration for me to grasp it. Recently though I saw Salmon Fishing in Yemen and was delighted. I'm adding fishing to my life list as of today.
So here's 1 part movie-review and 1 part metaphor-for-life.

Linda while camping

Ewan McGregor plays a fish expert with a boring marriage who gets suckered into an unlikely project. A rich sheik asks him to have faith and work with him on creating salmon fishing recreation in Yemen, a mostly desert place. Emily Blunt gets to manage the project as a consultant who doesn't know anything about salmon. It's a beautiful and funny tale and I found myself smiling the whole time. I went to see it by myself at Aperture, our local indie theater. I thoroughly enjoyed the shared experience. Here are my take-aways:

1. Salmon swim upstream and its in their nature to do this. So while it's "normal" for them, it's not normal for other fish. They swim against the current when it's time for them to leave their mark and procreate. They are highly adaptable and go in both sea and river water. It seems the life of a salmon is quite the adventure with multiple names throughout their life span. I learned that here. Upon learning that and having the story from Yemen running through my mind, I felt even better about going to the movie alone. I didn't go to movies alone until just a couple years ago after a friend told me how much she enjoyed it. It's super liberating to go alone because it's a cultural expectation that there would be others with you.
2. Ewan's character Fred has a moment where he wants to "go upstream" to change the course of his life. To do the harder thing for the potential added value it could bring. He takes a risk. Salmon do that all the time. Ever seen those pictures of Alaskan bears eating sockeye? Those fish are bold instinctively and are great role models for us. 
3. Like any good story, there is romance in this one. I love how they integrate it into the plot. Without giving anything away, I just want to point out how attractive it is when someone swims upstream, against the norms. We are drawn to people who think independently and are driven by a passion to live for something more. The sheik is such an appealing character for his confident faith - it draws people in.
4. The movie reminded me how sweet it is to have hope in something, faith that something can be realized even when the odds are against it. I have unmet desires and unrealized dreams, as do we all and this movie is a sweet reminder that the faith in those dreams spurs people on to do extraordinary things. In the words of Donald Miller - live a good story!  The hope in this story was in the salmon and the sheik, but we should all pause to think what we put our faith in and examine our actions to see if they line up.

Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure, than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer much, because they live in that grey twilight that knows neither victory nor defeat. - Teddy Roosevelt