I can't help but think if more people hunted and accepted the realities of taking life to sustain life, it would be a better world. Supermarkets excel at separating food and food products from the realities of where they come from and what is sacrificed in the process. In western society, avoiding contemplation of the realities of our food is the norm and we're worse off for it.
If you can find a copy, read the story of "The Lost Bull" from Beyond Fair Chase by Jim Posewitz. We have been using it as a good example of hunter ethics in hunter safety classes.
This is the side of hunting that so many people glaze over, but holds more weight than the successful ones ever will. "It'll happen to everyone eventually" is what I was told repeatedly when I put a poor archery shot on a doe in my second ever deer season. Out of immense guilt and respect, I put in the hours to finally catch up with her, and like your antelope, I will never forget the look she gave me asking nothing more than to make the second shot count. That doe fundamentally changed my process and priorities for all hunts that followed. Thanks for sharing this!
It is a scarring experience indeed, but, as John Steinbeck said, “To be alive at all is to have scars.”
tears. If your writing had been included on my English Lit syllabus, I would have better memories of that class.
Beautiful and powerful. Thank you.
Thanks for writing about this.
I can't help but think if more people hunted and accepted the realities of taking life to sustain life, it would be a better world. Supermarkets excel at separating food and food products from the realities of where they come from and what is sacrificed in the process. In western society, avoiding contemplation of the realities of our food is the norm and we're worse off for it.
If you can find a copy, read the story of "The Lost Bull" from Beyond Fair Chase by Jim Posewitz. We have been using it as a good example of hunter ethics in hunter safety classes.
This is the side of hunting that so many people glaze over, but holds more weight than the successful ones ever will. "It'll happen to everyone eventually" is what I was told repeatedly when I put a poor archery shot on a doe in my second ever deer season. Out of immense guilt and respect, I put in the hours to finally catch up with her, and like your antelope, I will never forget the look she gave me asking nothing more than to make the second shot count. That doe fundamentally changed my process and priorities for all hunts that followed. Thanks for sharing this!