The Hudson River Nets at the Unification Theological Seminary in Barrytown, NY

“The seminarians are really rediscovering me, finding out that I do not just have theories, but that I have the kind of knowledge that can only come from experience. I have studied fishing and designed several patented tools for fishing. For instance, sometimes the hook gets caught in the fish’s mouth and fishermen have an awful time getting the hook out. I have invested a small tool to push the barb through and get the hook out easily.

“One member saw me cutting the metal to make this tool myself, and he said, ‘Father, why do you work so hard? Why don’t you just go to a tackle shop and buy one?’ I told him, ‘America doesn’t have such a tool. If I could buy this kind of tool then why should I make it?’

“I invented a new net at Barrytown, one you have never seen. It is a one-way-street net, and once the fish does into the net there is no way it can turn around. Yesterday I had an appointment with some people at Belvedere, but I had a new inspiration for the net and got caught up in directing the seminarians about how to make it. We worked hard all night and I could not come here on time.

“Do you want to come fishing with me? I don’t want you to come, because you just don’t know anything about fishing; I would have to yell at you and give you a hard time. How can I train you people? Do you still want to join me? …

“When I had some American women go into the Hudson River to fish the other day, some of them became stiff and numb.”

Reverend Sun Myung Moon, May 1, 1977, Tarrytown, NY, “God’s Preparation for Our Church, and Its Early Days,” God’s Will and the World, p. 401 ff.