Politics is Where the Competing Moral Visions of a Society Meet and Struggle

The Annual Bear Hunting Trip

It Was Never About The Bear

By Tom Walsh

For most people Thanksgiving is about a turkey dinner.   But for me, it signals the annual bear trip.  With just a few good men, we brave the weather, the mountains, and our age, all in search of the bear. 

Well… not really.

While it is true that we purchase hunting licenses, clean and sight in our guns, and pour over topographical maps before our journey in hopes of bagging the big one; it was never about the bear.

“The spiritual life cannot be made suburban.  It is always frontier, and we who live in it must accept and even rejoice that it remains untamed.”  [1]

Roughing it on the ground in sleeping bags and enjoying the exclusive fellowship of men around the campfire transport us back to a time when securing the basics of food, clothing and shelter were coupled with the awesome wonder of the universe.

Ripped away are the facades of busyness, the restraints of political correctness, and preening before the ladies.  Here we can live life with a certain kind of intensity, while still experiencing relaxation and being and humbled before the ever-present magnificence of God and His Creation.