50 miles from home, I realized that I forgot to pack my extra shells for our hunting and camping trip. I sat there for a few minutes in the passenger seat in silence and mad at myself at my unthinkable mistake and embarrassed to say anything to Bob. I wanted to run off and hide. …
Control
…I went hunting wild,After the wildest beauty in the world,Which lies not calm in eyes or braided hair,But mocks the steady running of the hour… —Wilfred Owen, from “Strange Meeting “ Hunting’s beauty lives wildly between control and chaos. What do you control? How do you deal with chaos? We have expensive, complicated electronic devices …
Remote
"As for me, I am tormented with an everlasting itch for things remote." - Herman Melville, Moby Dick. So far this season, Bob and I have been only hunting at higher elevations where the earthy golden grasses and light green sage colored hills meet up with the forested mountains. These are places to take advantage …
All Imperfect Things
I got a sick queasy feeling deep in my stomach as we detoured and drove into rural Council, Idaho. The curbside spot right out front of the local veterinary office was the exact spot where we'd parked the bright red Jeep two years before and it was empty and waiting for us. Just like the …
Saudades
One summer while home from college I waited tables at an Italian restaurant in Laguna Beach run by some racist Milanese who'd recently emigrated from apartheid South Africa. How they ended up in Laguna I'm not sure, but their attitudes about people struck me as not only offensive but ironic considering that the kitchen and …