WHAT HUNTING MEANS TO ME

By Rev. Wanda Wilson

            As soon as the nights start getting cooler and the leaves show the slightest sign of coloration, it begins.  You know, that internal switch flips on and you start losing normalcy.  All you can think about is hunting.  You're a hazard on the road because you're always watching for deer in the fields and work becomes the obstacle that stands between you and being in the woods.  Just get it done so you can catch a few hours practicing, or scouting, or actually having time in the stand.

            I always say that something changes in a hunting person's blood this time of the year.  How else can you explain it?  Oh, I can give some personal explanations to try to understand why it happens to me.

            For one, hunting has always been a part of my life.  My father, four brothers, cousins and uncles hunted various types of game where I lived in western New York.  As a girl, I got to shoot, but not hunt.  This was unfortunate, but that's the way it was thirty-five to forty years ago.

            Some of my fondest memories are of Thanksgiving with the house filled with the wonderful aromas of turkey and pumpkin pies, and then the much-awaited arrival of the hunters.  Sometimes they beamed from a successful hunt; other times there were no deer.  But there was always much discussion of sightings and plans of where the next hunt would be.  These hopes and expectations were as delectable as the dinner.

            Another possible explanation for the "change-in-the-blood syndrome" could be the opportunities hunting gives us to be in touch with the real world.  Do you realize how artificial our environment has become?  Large quantities of time are spent in front of one screen or another.  Our homes, offices, stores and cars have controlled air creating a protective bubble for us.  From what?  The real thing - air, grass, trees, sounds, sun, wind, and all the delightful reality of nature.  Hunting brings us out of our plastic, artificial worlds and we experience a good old dose of "real".  No wonder our blood changes.

            Another explanation, for some hunters, is the presence of God and God's peace which a trip to the woods affords.  Being a minister myself, I find this to be true.  Work keeps me busy, but a trip to the woods quiets me and seems to soak up my anxiety.  When deer hunting "distracts" me, I seem better at my work - or at least I am once the season is over - and at being a human being.

Any of these are possible explanations for the hunter's blood changing at this time of the year.  But maybe we shouldn't try to diagnose it, or figure it out, or explain it.  Perhaps it's best left as a mystery and we should let it take its course and just plain enjoy it.  Have a great season!

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