The Hunt For Clarity

摘要

One of the sweetest things about October is the hush that comes before the start of hunting season. Some of us will have been out shooting birds in September and early October and might even have gone out with a bow, hoping to call in an elk. But for most of Montana, hunting season does not begin until late October with the start of rifle season, the ultimate opportunity for bounty gathering. And I wonder if part of the stillness that precedes the season's start-a soft spot where time seems disinclined, for once, to move forward-might come from the fact that almost all of us have finally made our peace with the decision to push on and reach for more, even as most of the animal world is lying down and going to sleep. For the next five weeks, some of us will be more physically active than we have been all year. We'll run ourselves ragged, rising hours before dawn and hauling ourselves up one mountain and down another, traveling always to the deeper, farther reaches, the backsides of places, following tracks and scent and intuition and landscape. And perhaps in this exhaustion, we will reach a dream state, a descent or an immersion that is required of the season. Perhaps the hunt is our own migration, our own way to fit into the world, into this rank and bountiful place.