I don't mean once in a lifetime - I can't believe it - this is going to be in the news kind of perfect, but the realistic but hard to come by kind. Dispite some misgivings from my family, I spent Sunday up at our hunting land / farm / spiritual renewal center. I love it up there because nobody can get to me and I don't have to answer to anyone about anything. I could go on about that but there is this perfect night to talk about.
It was 6:00 as I sat in my elevated deer stand surrounded by orange and yellow covered aspen and birch trees as they worked to prepare for the long winter. You could tell that fall was having it's impact on the environment as leaves were falling and the smells of the season were floating in the breeze. I was out the weekend before, but things were different. Temperatures in the 70's have been replaced by 50's and the sun is spending more and more time behind a curtain of overcast. At about the right time for the evening, the local residents began to come to life as they prepared for their daily walk to the dinner table. First I spotted an ear. Then came the full body of a female deer very slowly and cautiously leaving the brown and green brushy cover. It's like she realized and accepted that the tradeoff for an easy meal of soybeans and wheat regrowth is the risk that the next trip from away from safety may be their last.
Anyway, I see this deer and begin my internal debate as to whether or not - if given the chance - I would attempt to give her a parking ticket. As she walked closer to me, I should have grabbed my bow, setting myself up for a good clean shot. I didn't. The part of my brain that wanted to just hang back and watch her and her grazing offspring wander past won out and I did exactly that. I am a hunter, not a killer. There have been several times when I ended a night of hunting exactly that same way. There is something to be said about hanging out in a tree with nature on a beautiful fall night just enjoying the sounds and smells that can only be found there. Could I have killed her - yes. Would I have felt remorse for it - no. This day, however, I was content to just enjoy the moment.
Last night was a perfect night!
A hunter not a killer. That's a great line. You've got the makings of a great essay in the last blog post. Maybe even a poem. And you don't have to sit on some obscure mountain top for it either (I forget how your bonus question about me reading Russian poetry on a mountain top goes . . . )
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