Empty Spot on the Dinner Plate

An Empty Spot on the Dinner Plate

I love hunting season. It is one of the best times of the year. While I was out this year, climbing up and down the local mountains, I stopped and took it all in…several times. Usually I had no choice, as I stopped on the way up a steep hill to look for the piece of lung I thought I had just coughed up. I thought about how much fun the many that were not out, were missing out on and how beautiful the woods were. Then, I would remind myself that here in the big woods, coming down the mountain was going to be much worse than going up and it was going to get worse before it got better. I would then gather myself up, wipe the sweat off my brow, blink through the spots I was seeing and continue up the hill in search of the elusive whitetail deer. One evening, after a long descent I arrived safely back at my truck. I sat down on my tailgate and began checking to see that my scope was not knocked ajar in one of my downhill rolls and then seeing if I could straighten my toes out or at least get them back to their normal shape. Once everything was in order I paused and wondered what the vegetarian, anti-hunters were doing, and if it was painful too. I wondered what they were putting in the place on their dinner plate reserved for meat, the main course at my house that evening.

People who are vegetarian, anti-hunters are a curiosity to me. I have met some and have been brow beaten about my carnivorous, steak eating, and knuckle dragging, hunting habits. I always tread lightly around these people because they scare me. Like most others, I fear what I don’t understand. Trying to talk to them and ask questions has only led to more questions on my part and therefore more fear.

While I admire their respect for animal life and wanting to protect it, I don’t understand their discrimination against plants, yes, plants. I have asked them, do they own anything that is wood? I get a “yes”. Do they eat fruits and vegetables and again a hearty “yes”. I then mention that these things that they use and eat were alive once and now are not. Some food plants are even manipulated and mutated to make them larger. I ask them what the difference is with animals. Why do they discriminate in their choice of life and death? This is the part where things get dicey and I become very afraid. They have become angry when I suggest that, in my book, all life forms are of the same life force, they are all just as alive. It has even been proven that trees and other plants do communicate with each other, so why do they value plants over animals, why do they discriminate? For us to exist, we all have to intertwine with some life force. It is tough to exist on this planet and not affect something alive, more proof that we are part of one, all-connected web. It makes sense to me to respect and conserve all things, not just one thing over all others because really, it can’t be done.

I usually don’t get to explain to these people that they are missing out on a wonderful family experience. The atmosphere of deer camp and the experience of being in the woods are much richer while hunting and fishing. While I enjoy hiking and canoeing and enjoying the outdoors in those ways, doing it while scouting, hunting and fishing makes the outdoors more enjoyable and richer. Just in the same way a pipe lit from campfire embers makes the tobacco taste richer and food cooked on an open fire is better. To me, most outdoor experiences are like reading a chapter of a book while hunting and fishing properly force us to read and enjoy the entire book. There is a huge difference between walking through the woods and hunting through the woods. A person can learn about a stream or forest in a ½ mile of good hunting or fishing than just walking, no matter what the distance traveled.

The experience of being around hearth with your extended family discussing ancestors and their outdoor experiences while my children run around and play with their cousins and friends is all part of the outdoor experience that is richer when combined with hunting and fishing. Being able to enjoy and love hunting and fishing puts a value on life and wildlife, in fact without the value and need to have animals running free they would have already been extinct in Pennsylvania, as well as other places, a long time ago.

When I bring game back to the house and camp, my kids run out and admire the game. They love animals and they appreciate the gifts they bring us. I think they can balance their love of animals with hunting because they understand that all living things are equal. They understand that we need them and they need us and hunting and fishing is what brings us together. They understand the importance of family and how the outdoors bonds us together physically and in spirit. They understand the importance of a full plate with no empty places, on their dinner table and within their very own souls. They also make me realize and understand how lucky we are and then I feel a little sorry for those with an empty place on their plate.