{"id":110537,"date":"2020-01-10T10:59:17","date_gmt":"2020-01-10T15:59:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/?p=110537"},"modified":"2020-01-10T10:59:17","modified_gmt":"2020-01-10T15:59:17","slug":"column-the-musings-of-a-simple-country-man-8","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/?p=110537","title":{"rendered":"COLUMN: The Musings of a Simple Country Man"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"
Hobie Morris<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

If you only had one\nshot<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Hobie Morris<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s a cold early November morning. Snow covers the ground. Deer\nhunting season is beginning. Gun fire \u2013 the deer are alerted to danger.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A hunter carefully loads his weapon. He clicks on its\nsafety. Slowly he walks through thick brush to a spot he scouted during bow\nseason. His pulse quickens as his eyes search into the still darkened woods. He\npatiently waits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Suddenly a huge buck bounds over the crest of a nearby\nknoll. He stamps the ground and snuffs the air. He catches the hunter\u2019s scent\nwho is slowly raising his gun and shoots \u2013 and misses. The buck takes a\ntremendous leap and quickly vanishes into the forest. The hunter sees only\nyoung does the rest of the day. As the day darkens, it is time to go home. (He\u2019ll\nhunt several more times but unsuccessfully). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hunters anticipate \u201cOpening Day\u201d for the entire year. Today\u2019s\nhunters are sports people first and foremost. Delectable venison is a bonus \u2013\nbut not a necessity. If unsuccessful, there is always next year. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

By comparison, America\u2019s pioneers hunted to survive. Their\nsingle shot rifle is all that stood between usually many hungry mouths,\nstarvation and possibly death. With only often meager field crops to depend on,\nhunting was an essential necessity. Hunting honed one\u2019s knowledge of animal\nhabitat, behavior etc and, most of all, one\u2019s marksmanship. The latter often\nproduced stories that grew in their telling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tupper Lake area Adirondack guide, Mart Moody once told\nabout a hunting experience he had.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After missing a deer, Moody was so mad he smashed his gun\nbarrel on a hard maple tree\u2026twisting the barrel into an indifferent \u201cS\u201d. With\nthe disabled gun over his shoulder, the disgusted Moody continued through the\nwoods. In his excitement of seeing a huge buck standing at the base of a\nmountain, he fired his gun. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Moody, of course, missed the deer but his shot traveled\nthree times around the mountain killing two large black bears and a woodchuck. He\nmentioned the woodchuck, in his own words, \u201cto keep the story accurate.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When game was spotted, our pioneer ancestor aims his rifle\nwith the intensity of a man who only has one shot to fire. A miss means minutes\nto reload. His trigger finger gently squeezes the trigger. His aim must be true\nor else.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s late December. The 2019 deer season is over. The woods\nare quiet; the rural roads mostly deserted. Our 4 decade \u201coff the grid\u201d winter\nroutine resumes its tranquil ways. I\u2019m outside a great deal with daily firewood\ndemands, a 24\/7 necessity. A bonus of such work is the time it allows to think\nabout things.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My thoughts often echo what General Robert E. Lee wrote in\nan 1870 letter, that we must cast our eyes backward in times of turmoil and\nchange, concluding that \u201cit is history that teaches us to hope.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I confess I spend far more time thinking about the past than\nthe scary unknown and uncharted waters of the future. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lois and I are temporary residents of land once occupied by\nunknown generations of pioneers, hunters, and famers who lived, worked, and\npassed on. Working alone, I sense their presence all around me. Robert Lee\u2019s\nsage observation is correct: the past (and land) gives me hope too!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The modern day hunter\u2019s advantages are many. He can shoot\nmany times without reloading. If he misses, he has more chances. His aim isn\u2019t\nin desperation like America\u2019s one shot ancestors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I thought about this recently. Does the \u201cmany shot\u201d attitude\nsend out the wrong signals? Would we live our life differently if we more\ncarefully followed our ancestors\u2019 \u201cone shot\u201d philosophy \u2013 of life? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMany shots\u201d imply if we mess up today we will still have\nendless opportunity to make amends and redeem ourselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For a moment, let\u2019s envision that everybody in this\ncommunity has one day to live and therefore must make the very best (one shot)\nof the short time remaining.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Will we see beauty we missed before? Will we see goodness,\nkindness, and love in others for the first time? Will we be less critical, more\ntolerant, cheerful, and forgiving? Our allotted time is a priceless gift we\ncan\u2019t waste \u2013 even for a second. A \u201cone shot\u201d revaluation would make all our\nlives happier and more meaningful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Time to get back to splitting firewood. This simple country\nman often thinks about our pioneers. In many still valuable ways, their \u201cone\nshot\u201d life is still on target. What do you think?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Editor\u2019s note: Hobie\nMorris is a Brookfield resident and simple country man.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If you only had one shot By Hobie Morris It\u2019s a cold early November morning. Snow covers the ground. Deer hunting season is beginning. Gun fire \u2013 the deer are alerted to danger. A hunter carefully loads his weapon. He clicks on its safety. Slowly he walks through thick brush to a spot he scouted […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":42368,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23677,23808,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-110537","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-columns","category-opinion","category-top-story"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110537","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=110537"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110537\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/42368"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=110537"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=110537"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=110537"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}