|
 Fall
is the polishing time. Why? Your guess is as good as mine. For some
reason, the spirit that guides us made our experiences in fall the
peak of the year’s efforts.
For animals, both wild and domestic, it is the rut, the breeding
time. The bulls and bucks have never looked better. Their antlers
and horns are hardened into weapons and sharpened against trees.
Their bodies are lean and aggressive and they tend to lose all good
sense.
I don’t think for a minute that it is just a calendar coincidence
that fall is when most festivals, fairs and exhibitions occur.
Because by the time fall rolls around, we have jars of jelly ready
for competition. The hunters have been practicing out at the range
for weeks now and are ready to take the rifle or the bow into the
woods to see how their skills measure up to those who they’d love to
subdivide and put in the freezer.
The kids are all back in school now, where they can try out all the
new crazy stunts on their friends that they learned from their
uncles last summer. It is a holy, blessed time for that. Family
tradition, you know. [to top of second
column] |
The uncles have been polishing
these stunts for decades now and have them down to a science. And
the older folks may not be building cabins or climbing mountains
after elk as much these days, but there is a lot to be said for just
passing along stories to the youngsters. And it works out fairly
well when we realize that ‘most everyone who could challenge the
truth of one of those stories has already graciously died on us.
Fall is just a wonderful time to be alive.
[Text from file received from
Slim Randles]
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