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“Here son you can have this old camo coat, my back-up knife, and this rifle your Grandpa gave me ...oh and here we can’t head out to the woods without all these opinions of mine”
Opinions, us adults sure do like to hold on to them. From National Politics and religion, down to the brand pick-up truck we will ONLY ever drive in our lifetime. Get a group of 50 adults together and bring up a topic and you get 50 varying answers, all spoken with the authority that their way is truly the one written in stone.
Hunting is one of those things you can’t wait to teach your kid or any willing youth really. It is something you think about from the minute you hold your child in the hospital for the first time. Showing them how to read deer sign, or be able to tell when a lab is getting birdy and it is time to find a shooting lane, or how to wait for that perfect shot eventhough this one might be good enough. So many important things that create memories just during their teaching, let alone all the memories a successful lesson leads too. We live to do this, it is our passion, but yet that passion also can play a sinister rule.
It is extremely hard to teach without opinion. If you feel very strongly about something it leaks into your lessons, your objective muddies a bit like a little brown tributary running into a clean river. Sure a lot of it dilutes once past the mouth of the tributary, but the water in the main channel is a bit murky just the same.
There is a saying that “history is doomed to repeat itself”, well my take on that is that it is only true because of the teaching of opinions from generation to generation. No matter if it be our opinion on people in foreign lands, or our opinions on how great things were back in the good ole days. It repeats, because we lead it to repeat.
Again , I think of hunting and some of the current issues facing it and all the opinions that have risen up to face these issues. I wonder how many believe in what they say purely based off the opinion , unable to consider any information that could lead against it. I wonder how often I am guilty. We have gained more knowledge about so many things that deal with hunting in recent years, yet when push comes to shove we will turn to our opinion, the ones we were taught. You know history repeating itself.
So now when I go to teach my kids something , I ‘ll pause first and ask for their thoughts on it. drink from the clean river if you will, before telling them anything that may taint it (or try my best too). And I have to tell you 9 times out of 10 I hear their response and smile and think, I remember that kid, that kid was me, back before I got opinions.
Learn from your kids, don't taint their Outdoor experiences too much with your disdain for certain things in our Sport. It is all good in the eyes of a kid, keep that river clean and the tributaries may one day follow.
Be Well and Get Outdoors,
RB
Opinions, us adults sure do like to hold on to them. From National Politics and religion, down to the brand pick-up truck we will ONLY ever drive in our lifetime. Get a group of 50 adults together and bring up a topic and you get 50 varying answers, all spoken with the authority that their way is truly the one written in stone.
Hunting is one of those things you can’t wait to teach your kid or any willing youth really. It is something you think about from the minute you hold your child in the hospital for the first time. Showing them how to read deer sign, or be able to tell when a lab is getting birdy and it is time to find a shooting lane, or how to wait for that perfect shot eventhough this one might be good enough. So many important things that create memories just during their teaching, let alone all the memories a successful lesson leads too. We live to do this, it is our passion, but yet that passion also can play a sinister rule.
It is extremely hard to teach without opinion. If you feel very strongly about something it leaks into your lessons, your objective muddies a bit like a little brown tributary running into a clean river. Sure a lot of it dilutes once past the mouth of the tributary, but the water in the main channel is a bit murky just the same.
There is a saying that “history is doomed to repeat itself”, well my take on that is that it is only true because of the teaching of opinions from generation to generation. No matter if it be our opinion on people in foreign lands, or our opinions on how great things were back in the good ole days. It repeats, because we lead it to repeat.
Again , I think of hunting and some of the current issues facing it and all the opinions that have risen up to face these issues. I wonder how many believe in what they say purely based off the opinion , unable to consider any information that could lead against it. I wonder how often I am guilty. We have gained more knowledge about so many things that deal with hunting in recent years, yet when push comes to shove we will turn to our opinion, the ones we were taught. You know history repeating itself.
So now when I go to teach my kids something , I ‘ll pause first and ask for their thoughts on it. drink from the clean river if you will, before telling them anything that may taint it (or try my best too). And I have to tell you 9 times out of 10 I hear their response and smile and think, I remember that kid, that kid was me, back before I got opinions.
Learn from your kids, don't taint their Outdoor experiences too much with your disdain for certain things in our Sport. It is all good in the eyes of a kid, keep that river clean and the tributaries may one day follow.
Be Well and Get Outdoors,
RB
