We are a Hunting Family

As we grow older, we often become guarded and cautious about the things we say to people we don’t really know, and the way we are perceived.  The current climate we live in now has people afraid to speak their mind often for fear of offending someone.  I talk about subjects like this in my Hunter Education classes.  I tell my students to be proud, but not cocky or boisterous about being hunters.  That there is no shame in being a hunter and it is not something to be embarrassed about.  Yet there is a need to be conscious of how others perceive us.  It is important to not intentionally offend someone, but if they are offended, realize that is their emotion, and they are responsible for their own emotions.

 When my daughter Montana (7 at the time) had one of her friends over to play.  This little girl walked into our living room and screeched to a halt with a wide-eyed stare facing a set of antlers on the wall.  She asked why those were on the wall in our house.  I panicked for a moment.  Racing through my mind were all kinds of fears that she was horrified by the antlers, maybe scared of them, maybe her parents we ardent anti-hunters, how would they react when she told them what she saw.  All kinds of things could go wrong if I said the wrong thing.

My daughter Montana without skipping a beat simply said, “We are a hunting family.”  Her friend shrugged her shoulders and said, “oh, we aren’t a hunting family.” And that was the end of the situation.  She, in her innocence of youth, had no fear of her friend’s reaction, no embarrassment whatsoever, she simply saw the fact that we hunt and that it is perfectly normal.

For many of us hunting is not only traditional, enjoyable and a way to spend quality time outdoors- it is who we are, it is as much a part of our identity as our face, and we need not be embarrassed by that.