I got an email from Steven, who had gone back through the Big Deer Blog archives and pictures and come to this conclusion:
You try to make hunting out to be some great and honorable thing, but there is nothing great or honorable about what you do. Hunting is a joke unless you need the meat to survive. (Note: I paraphrase and clean up some of his language.)
My first inclination was to tell old Steve to shove it, but I thought better of it and typed this response:
I do not hunt to be great or honorable, just the opposite. For me hunting is a simple, spiritual and deeply personal pleasure. It is a part of how I was formed as a boy, and a bigger part of me now. You won’t understand that. Here is something you might approve of. After all these years, the seeing and stalking of a beautiful deer is more important to me than the killing of it. But don’t get me wrong, I still love to shoot them and eat them. I have gotten to the point in life where the sights, sounds and smells of the woods make me happy and whole, whether I shoot a deer or not that day. I guess some might say that is great and honorable, though again you won’t understand.
An empty plate- I’d love to get a video of the response. Too funny to think about.
Well said, Mike. There is something so deep and fundamental, even primal, about the desire to hunt, that if a person doesn’t have it, they won’t ever fully understand. But, it’s worth having the discussion, respectfully, in the hope that people will accept what we do in the true spirit of freedom.
In my own family, there is a long tradition of hunting, and one of my sons has followed in it with every ounce of his being. Another son tried deer hunting as a young teen, but when first presented with a chance to shoot a deer, realized that he, personally, had no desire to pull the trigger. He is now represents the attitude we should hope for: a non-hunter who is fully supportive of the hunting tradition. And, by the way, the best way to get him to come over is to tell him I’m serving grilled venison!
My Dad always said you can’t argue with drunks or idiots. Why waste your breathe?
I would not have given him the time of day.
There is no explaining stupid, heck we live in a society that elects Nancy Pelosi and there is NO EXPLAINING that at all.
Mike, wonderful reply on a difficult subject to address with people who have no point of reference for the outdoors and why we hunt. I guess the only thing I would add to the discussion that in a way addresses the great and noble statement is that practically all the dollars spent on habitat preservation and game management in this country come from folks like you and your fellow hunters across the country. Surely the successes in those areas which are fueled by sportsman’s dollars is a great and noble thing.
This is just one more example of how polarized, inflexible and off course this great experiment in freedom we call The United States has become.
Why not ask him who does his killing for those burgers, nuggets or veal scampi he has no problem eating. Oh he says he’s a vegan well couldn’t that tofu have gone to feed a helpless animal?
I gave up trying to convert the truly ignorant now I invite them to my house for supper. When/if they get there I seat them at an empty plate.