What is the Crimson Arrow of Life?
I feel like I should start by explaining my blog’s title. The “crimson arrow of life” is a phrase I admittedly stole from Ted Nugent. Uncle Ted can be surprisingly “deep” when he talks about hunting, but he really makes a lot of sense.
As hunters, we owe a lot to the animals we pursue. Hunting is a very important part of conservation. Without hunting, many species of animals would quickly overpopulate and put a tremendous strain on the environment. One only needs to look at the impact of the wolf re-introduction in the Northern Rocky Mountains on the elk herds of Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming to see what happens when a wildlife population goes unchecked. Anyway, I digress…
All hunters have the ultimate goal of killing the animal they’re pursuing as quickly and humanely as possible. For the archer this means having a razor-sharp broadhead, a perfectly-tuned bow, and accurate shot placement. When these three things come together, the end result is an arrow that completely passes through the vital organs of the animal, and when the hunter finds the arrow on the forest floor, it is covered in blood from broadhead to fletching…a crimson arrow.
Now, I know what you’re thinking: “Wouldn’t that be a crimson arrow of death?” Well, yes…and no. To me there is much that can be learned about life through hunting and the outdoors. Life lessons about the value of hard work, patience, and persistence are all found in God’s great outdoors. My favorite lessons, though, are the ones during which God reveals himself to me, whether it’s the sounds of the woods coming alive in the morning, the beauty of a glorious sunset, or something in between. Hopefully I’ll be able to adequately describe those experiences in my writing.
At any rate, I’m going to have fun trying.
