Friday, October 13, 2006

BOOKS AND LIBRARIES

Al Mohler has a wonderful post on books and personal libraries and what they mean. A Schola alumnus pointed me to it (thanks, Stephen); I can do no better than to point you to it in turn and let you read it yourself. Please do.

Wednesday, October 11, 2006

HUNTING SEASON BEGINS... AND ENDS

Yesterday hunting season officially opened in our area and by eight thirty in the morning I had my deer. So much for hunting season. I keep telling my father not to let me take my rifle on Opening Day next year; I'd like it to last a bit longer. Today my 13-year old son, got his deer. Season over for him too. If Dad's not careful, he'll get his deer by this weekend and then what'll we do? Yesterday as I was dressing out my deer in the woods, Robert was standing by, supervising, and said meditatively, "You know, the best thing about hunting is just being out in the woods." Very astute. If getting a deer were the true goal, I'd be unfazed by getting my deer the first day, but it's not, and I'm fazed. I even thought, as I lay peering through the scope and squeezing the trigger (100 yards, sun and wind in my favor, rested and breathing quiet, steady rest on the ground, perfect neck shot, no meat destroyed, everything was right), I thought to myself, says I, "Self? If you shoot, that's it for another season?" ....Ka-blam. "Self" evidently hadn't been listening very closely. "Yeah, yeah, uh huh, uh huh, now shut up and lemme shoot." Stupid self.

Still, a satisfying shot, clean kill, I bring home the bacon again. In thirty-six years of hunting and nearly that many deer, I've never once merely wounded a deer and lost it. Dad taught me to shoot well or not at all. I've taken deer with a .30-30, a .300 Savage, .30-06, and my S&W .44 Magnum revolver. All one shot drops. I don't generally get trophy animals - in fact, one year, due to poor calculation of distance and size, I shot one I could have brought home in my pocket. Ok, not that small, but you get the idea. Last year, a nice spike buck. Many years, a fat doe, good eating. And the season isn't really over. Robert and I will go out with Dad and help chase them his way though the woods. And when he gets his, we'll all still go out and walk around, just to be out there, in the silence, the cold, the autumn forest.