Dave McCracken
December 25, 2006, 10:37 AM
47 years ago today Pop gave me a shotgun. The story's told elsewhere. That 870 is still with me, serving as it has all the years in between.
That present made an enormous difference in my life. With it, I.....
Fed the family and myself with some of the best, most nutritious food on Earth. And learned that Men and Women provide. It's in our job description.
Protected that family and myself, and continue to do so.
Had huge amounts of fun. Recreation for me would not be the same.
It's been a key for me. Carrying it over hill and dale opened my eyes and mind to beauty. Sure, we don't need shotguns to see sunsets, but a shotgun showed to me in a woodcock's feathers how glorious a color brown can be. And how many subtle shades exist in that designation.
A shotgun has given me many hours of meditation in the quiet places between goose flights or the materialization of a whitetail from where no deer had stood a moment before. Gautama meditated neath a Bo Tree, I hickoriy, oak and beech. Who is to say his Enlightment or mine is better.
It has given me self knowledge, including the fact that "predator" is not a dirty word. It has taught me that one of my purposes is to be an ethical predator, taking what I need and no more as painlessly as possible.
It has taught me responsibility, that life is precious and not to be wasted.
It has Power, which without responsibility is tyranny, without knowledge is chaos,without control is useless.
I hope shotguns are all this to you also.
The best to you this Season.....
That present made an enormous difference in my life. With it, I.....
Fed the family and myself with some of the best, most nutritious food on Earth. And learned that Men and Women provide. It's in our job description.
Protected that family and myself, and continue to do so.
Had huge amounts of fun. Recreation for me would not be the same.
It's been a key for me. Carrying it over hill and dale opened my eyes and mind to beauty. Sure, we don't need shotguns to see sunsets, but a shotgun showed to me in a woodcock's feathers how glorious a color brown can be. And how many subtle shades exist in that designation.
A shotgun has given me many hours of meditation in the quiet places between goose flights or the materialization of a whitetail from where no deer had stood a moment before. Gautama meditated neath a Bo Tree, I hickoriy, oak and beech. Who is to say his Enlightment or mine is better.
It has given me self knowledge, including the fact that "predator" is not a dirty word. It has taught me that one of my purposes is to be an ethical predator, taking what I need and no more as painlessly as possible.
It has taught me responsibility, that life is precious and not to be wasted.
It has Power, which without responsibility is tyranny, without knowledge is chaos,without control is useless.
I hope shotguns are all this to you also.
The best to you this Season.....