Among the expected yoga mats and running shoes was my kid with her recurve.
She broke her presentation into 3 parts; the physical (exercise) aspect of shooting a bow, the mental (focus, etc) aspect and the "spiritual" (intrinsic) aspect. She said that many in the group thought she was going to talk about archery. But this was the part where she went on to explain that hunting was a big part of her values/belief – how it gave her (and hunters in general) a better understanding and connection to the natural world, the pride in providing for the family, the sadness but exhilaration of taking an animal by utilizing the skills that had been handed down from one generation to the next. The primal connection of knowing that you can survive, and by surviving you can truly live.
There was quite a bit more to it, and she is an eloquent speaker and word-smith. At the end she fielded a number of questions from the predominantly young and urban group and when the prof asked for comments on her presentation there was nothing but accolades for her. One young woman even said to her that she had never thought that hunting encompassed the many ideas that my daughter talked about and admitted that her perceptions of hunting and hunters had changed.
My daughter said that she knew she got through to the group was when her prof turned to the chalk board behind her and wrote:
Hunting = Respect.
Damn right I’m proud of her!!
RC
Nice to see things back up and running!!
