Guns and Gardens

I finally had the chance to watch the much vaunted Sarah Palin reality show in which she flies 600 miles to kill one caribou. As a man who grew up with a hunting family and has spent the last 15 years living on mostly venison and elk I feel I can speak with authority on this eco porn episode. My first thought was trying to calculate how much per pound that caribou cost. They flew 600 miles to the base camp and then had to take three individual flights deeper into caribou country. This is not including the expensive tents, backpacks, meals for the trips and of course state of the art Cabela's type camouflage clothing, boots and of course the invisible camera crew.

A principle of sustainable hunting is that the taking of the animal should not consume more energy than the animal will provide.

Each fall during hunting season I walk off my porch carrying only a gun and a knife. In order to honor the spirit of the animal I fast and pray on the days that I hunt. When I am tuned in I will often have dreams about the animal and the place I will find it. When I finally encounter the animal I look in its eyes for a minute and then I take careful aim and shoot. One shot one kill is my motto. Sarah Palin relied heavily on the wise father archetype in her episode. She referred frequently to all the life lesson he had taught her. Apparently, however, he never taught her the value of sighting in your weapon, be it rifle or bow, before you head out to hunt. Maybe she just wasn't listening. Maybe both are true.

Hunting basics include sighting in your weapon before you head out to hunt.

I still have in my possession my father's machete from the Korean War.On the thin side away from the sharp side are multiple indentations. Those dents came from sharpshooter practice. We would shoot at the thin side from distances as great as 100 yards with everything from muzzle loading rifles to the Remington 30.06 I still hunt with to this day. My father took great pride in his marksman skills and although I never got so formal as to earn the patch or join the NRA  I still take great pride in my shooting skills. I try to minimize the suffering of the animal by taking a head shot. I can say with pride that 8 of the 10 last seasons I shot a deer with a head shot. This sounds brutal but it minimizes suffering . In order to keep my hunting skills sharp I shoot from the same distance that I could kill with a bow.


 Hunting is not a "sport."



Life is sacred. Life is Spirit. Spirit is Life. Food is Spirit. Spirit is Food.To me hunting is a prayer. I connect directly with my food. I pray for it before, during and after. I am continually amazed that the pro-life crowds' reverence for life does not extend to coyotes and other wild things.Nothing irritates me more than the hordes of drunk overweight slobs who infest the woods during deer season. They give this ancient ritual a bad name and their disdain for life will eventually  lead to more and more restrictive hunting laws. Whenever I see hunters on television my stomach turns and I turn to something with more honor. Even "Jerseylicious" has more honor.

Although my childhood was filled with hunting we never had a mounted animal anywhere in our house. I took this even further when I grew up. In order to honor that life I have taken I don't snap any pictures of those animals. If I don't brain tan the hides myself or make a drum, I give it to friends who will use it. After butchering the animal myself, I cook all the meat off the bones and make stock. In the way of my ancestors everything gets used.

The one aspect of the show which may have turned the stomachs of the more effete members of the audience was when she showed the animal being butchered. People got to see what real meat looks like. I reflected on a kayak expedition I led in 1989 down the Syr Darya River in the former Soviet Union territories of Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan. We ate lamb and some sort of fish every day. Halfway through the trip we encountered a shepherd. We were most likely the first and last Americans that man had ever met. To honor the occasion, he offered the pick of any lamb or sheep from his flock.

He gave the honor to Paul, a yuppie from Seattle who spoke the best Russian. In an almost biblical fashion he paraded the entire flock by us. He was not a rich man and this clearly was a great honor. But Paul couldn't do it. He could eat meat but he did not have what it takes to take responsibility for his own meat. Most of the flock had nearly passed by us and Paul stood there immobilized. We were just about to insult the humble and generous shepherd when Yuri, my Soviet counterpart, yanked a fat lamb from the flock. The crisis was averted.

We still had plenty of food so the lamb went in the support raft. It traveled alive with us for two more days.At night the Russians would stake it out to feed inside our circle of tents. The American who were mostly urban Seattle yuppies talked of releasing the lamb. It clearly caused them great consternation. I pointed out the sounds of jackals in the distance which we heard every night. As diplomatically as I could I informed them that either the jackals or us would be eating that lamb in the not too distant future. A few days later there was the absence of a lamb's bleat and fresh tender lamb meat on the menu. They all ate it. After that experience I came to a simple conclusion.

If you cannot kill an animal perhaps you should not eat meat.

All these thoughts were swirling around my brain as I forced myself to watch the rest of the Sarah Palin "Reality?" Show. A lifetime of hunting, conversations with others around meat and food and life.I became grateful for the experiences life had offered me. I became grateful that I lived in a place where I could still to some degree follow the traditions of my ancestors. I became grateful for the intimate connection with my food whether it was spinach from my garden, mushrooms from the forest or venison from the fields.

I began thinking of another prominent female figure who was talking to Americans about food: Michelle Obama . Michelle has a dignity and grace not often found in political figures. Intelligent,educated and insightful, she has not taken on something dainty like libraries or roadside beautification. She has taken on childhood obesity and the health epidemic that our way of eating has created.

Gardens are not glamorous or exciting. They are quiet and peaceful. They offer a place for intimate connection to the earth. They offer places for reflection. Yet it is that small backyard garden with it abundant produce grown with love that will change this country for the better if we allow it.

I love my way of living in the forest with game close by but I also realize that this way of life is no longer possible for most Americans. But a garden, be it a pot with herbs in a window, a school or community garden or the skyscraper gardens of a fantasy future, is accessible to all Americans. I think I'll go with Michelle's dream.