Is it a "guy thing"? Dunno. Most of the hunters we meet out there, it's true, are guys. But we've met some remarkable huntresses driven by the very same passion. (And I don't mean veterans of the East German women's Olympic weightlifting team, either; you don't got to go there.) I really don't think it's that.

Well, maybe a little. I gotta believe that thousands of generations of hunter-gatherers have left an imprint on our makeup. Maybe there's some of that, at bottom. And we happen to believe that it's okay to have that in our makeup, it's not something that needs to be sublimated or outgrown. 

In fact, seems to me it's the boys who have their natural interests along these lines beaten down as "bad tendencies" who are the most likely to resort to surreptitious playing with matches, M-80s and firearms obtained on the sly. That's the group where the potential dangers lie below the surface. You can't teach kids safety or responsibility if they're playing with fire behind your back.

And yes, Martin and I both love to shoot guns. If none of the folks you know personally share this interest, and you might be tempted to fill in the picture from commonly circulating preconceptions about "people like that," please be assured that there's nothing at all cavalier about our approach to firearms. We both realize they're lethal. Martin and I have both taken and passed extensive firearms safety courses, and we're both licensed. Our firearms are stored unloaded in a locked steel safe to which I have the only key. The ammunition is locked away separately, and again I have the only key. If you could observe my son for a little while around firearms I think you'd see that his exposure to them has in fact helped him to grow up into a responsible and careful young man of remarkable presence of mind. I'm very proud of him, and I have come to trust him implicitly as a hunting partner.

But it's more than all that "boys and their guns" stuff - much more. We love to be out of doors. We love the adventure. In an increasingly interdependent and complex world, we love to develop our ability to be self-sufficient. We enjoy the challenge of matching wits with creatures who hold most of the advantages out there (if that sounds like a preposterous assertion to you, you probably haven't tried hunting before). We love the serenity in solitude, and we love the camaraderie in camp. We love sitting around campfires together: the tall tales, the laughter, the quiet contemplation staring into the embers. We love the clear night skies with stars right down to the horizon; we love to feel our nose hairs freezing as we breathe in the frosty air. We love hearing the howling of coyotes on distant ridges. We love how good food tastes in the open; how soundly you sleep. It's a package deal. We love it all.  And it's all good.