A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to...

...Tim Horton's. It's like the Forum, except the coffee is better and the donuts worse. Anyways, so I'm with a classmate, right? I'm wearing my Realtree hat, and he comes up besides me and asks in almost a furtive whisper,

"Hey, Des. Do you...hunt?"

"Nawp, J. But I want to."

He looked around, making sure no one was listening as we walked.

"Oh, I bowhunt. I just thought-"

"Cool, what for?"

And he started stammering. See, I wasn't being aggressive, or questioning, just interested. His reaction was something else, though. He looked around again as we got in line, made sure no other classmates were within earshot.

"Well, I think it's a sustainable practice allowed by-"

"J, stop. I was asking what you hunt for. Turkey? Elk?"

He looked skeptical.

"Black bear and deer."

"Cool, man. You got big brass ones to bowhunt bear. You got tags for this year?"

He relaxed a bit, and we talked kit for a few. I said I'd like to come along if he went that year...I was just astounded that he was so secretive, so...ashamed of hunting. Honestly, I didn't think it was a big deal, but I can see why people get worked up. We WERE at college, the very nexus of young, well meaning idiocy. Sure, in concept, a lot of the ideals held by students are all fine and good. Well, until subjected to reason and logic. That's what happened to me. I sat with a bottle of Glenfiddich in my 18th year, and actually thought instead of felt. I argued and debated with many a man and woman, and one by one, they broke things down. The big one was gun control- I used to be all about it. I was healed of my ignorance the hard way.

I realized I was wrong. I admitted it. I made a plan, and corrected the issues that I had.

It bothers me a lot that J feels so ashamed of something that's a natural part of the order of things. I mean, it's not like he's torturing these animals. He eats what he kills. But people make him feel like he needs to hide hunting from everyone.

Welcome to the locus of liberal hypocrisy- free speech, so long as you agree with them.

Deschain