She doesn’t call early. Our daughter-in-law might text about a sick child or a dead battery. But she doesn’t call early.
When I was young I had lots of hunting friends as well as invites to hunt with guys who, more often than not, turned out to be one & done deals. Sometimes it was safety attitudes. Other times just attitudes. Mostly, though, it was just that we didn’t “gee haw” (I came to understand that expression as a kid driving a team on my grandfather's farm.) I was bothered by this for years. I liked to hunt a certain way even though I didn’t understand why and I liked to hunt with other men who likewise did. The epiphany came late in life from John Madson in Out Home.
“The real hunter is probably as free as it’s possible for modern man to be in this teeming technocracy of ours. Not because he sheds civilized codes and restraints when he goes into the woods, becoming an animal, but because he can project himself out of and beyond himself and be wholly absorbed in a quieter, deeper and older world.”
Our daughter-in-law doesn’t call early but this morning my phone was saying otherwise. Had I not known what she would say I wouldn’t have understood through her tears. My last hunting friend (and her brother-in-law) had died before dawn.
He and I could pass a few quiet words before leaving the truck and then slip into the deer woods, set up on the ground with the wind, and not say a word until deep dark when we eased back out.
Maybe there will be another friend of kindred spirit. Likely there won’t. I get it. But it's alright and this new year will be alright in spite of its beginning because I also get what Gordon MacQuarrie said, “I left long before daylight, alone but not lonely.”
Last edited by FallCreekFan; 01/01/25 07:53 PM.
