Hunt2Prove
On the Hunt for a Better Version of Ourselves, the Forests We Steward, & the Wildlife we Love!
Wealth – What is it?
Much like the term trophy, the term wealth is subjective. Look no further than the internet and you’ll find many different ways to define it; look no further than individuals you come across and you’ll find living proof of those differences. What constitutes wealth for one man can be vastly different than what constitutes wealth for another. A castaway on a deserted island might consider himself wealthy to have all the fish and fruit he can eat, and all of the fresh water he can drink. On the other hand, another man might consider that same abundance of plain old fish, fruit, and unpurified water – repulsive.
Just as there are differing viewpoints on the meaning of the term “wealth”, so too are there differing viewpoints on what it takes to attain it. For the man on the island, attaining his wealth of fish comes from his ability to shape a piece of stone into a projectile point, which is then fastened to the end of a stick. With that stick in hand he waits by the shoreline, sometimes for hours on end. In the end, he gets his fish and considers himself wealthy. For the other man, his road to wealth is different – and, that’s okay.
The allegory above may mean nothing to you, but to me it means a little something. A recent experience in my life led me to question what the word wealth means to me. In today’s world of material, it’s easy to get caught up on all of the things you don’t have or all of the things you want, so much so that you lose sight of all the things you’re fortunate enough to have right in front of you. A man asked me the other day how many “trophy” bucks had been killed on a property I lease. Another man floated fast cars and private islands before my eyes when trying to sell me on his “opportunity” that would lead to wealth. I couldn’t relate to either of them. Don’t get me wrong, I like nice deer, nice things, and private escapes from the real world. I mean, even the castaway would be lying if he said he wouldn’t prefer a fishing pole to his spear. And, just because the other man doesn’t like fish and has chosen to take a different road to wealth, doesn’t make him a bad man – just a man with a different idea of what it means to be wealthy.
For me, I measure wealth in moments of time. Moments when I’m surrounded by the ones I love. Moments when I’m afield surrounded by the wildlife that I hold dear to my heart. Wealth, to me, is long days on the tractor. It’s knowing, when the dirt filled Q-tip reminds you later that night, that the food plot you just finished planting earlier that evening will do wonders for the wildlife that roam your lands & for the lucky hunter who may find success upon it. I find wealth to be a fish on the end of my daughter’s line and wild turkeys doing what wild turkeys do in the Spring. My kind of wealth, as simple as it may seem, is checking your trail cameras to find that a nice buck from season’s past is still around, and that he’s gotten bigger and better with age. I understand that to some, wealth is fast cars & motorcycles. I understand that to others, wealth is a “trophy” buck to hang on the wall. But, to me, being wealthy means less about the material things that money can buy and more about the moments of time that do wonders on your heart & soul.
So that’s YOUR deer, huh? Why not putting your name on a deer will save you from anxiety and letdown, ultimately making you a better hunter!
Let’s face it, we’ve all done it, and by “we all” I mean the vast majority of deer hunters – We’ve put OUR name on a deer before God did His pa
rt to put it on there for us.
Every year, I have pictures of dozens of bucks that roam the lands I’m fortunate to hunt. And, every year, about 99.9% of those bucks either live to grow another year because they don’t make the “hit list” or wind up expiring at the hands of another hunter – the hunter who was meant to harvest that animal in the first place. . . if you think like me that is.
This year has been no different, further bolstering my separation from the mentality that seeing or getting thousands of pictures of a deer doesn’t mean it’s YOURS. A true conservationist knows that wildlife belong to us all, and that a New Mexico Bull Elk, a Grizzly Bear from somewhere in the middle of Alaska, or a White-tail Buck from the heart of North Carolina isn’t yours until it walks out in front of you and meets its demise with a shot from your bow or gun.
I used to be “That Guy”! Yes, that guy who would arrogantly put my name on a deer and then allow its death at the hand of another hunter to leave me with a sense of bitterness or resentment – (What a three-letter word I was). Phew! Thank God I began to see the bigger picture and have been able to distance myself from such a negative mindset that can’t be found anywhere in the true-to-life definitions of words like sportsman, hunter, conservationist, steward, gentlemen, or friend.
I’m a firm believer that as hunters we can do all of the right things to improve our odds of success at bringing home the buck that lives in our dreams or that special one we have trail-camera pictures of, but in the end, there’s a Higher Power that makes the ultimate decision on the who, where, & when – The why might not always be easily understood, but sometimes, it’s to humble guys like the one I used to be and turn them into the hunter that they’re meant to become.
Photos from the Wilder side of Life!
