This isn’t fishing related for the most part, but it is outdoors related simply through the books I have chosen to read. I have several “bucket lists” and due to the Oklahoma heat I have been spending what little spare time I have reading and checking items off my reading bucket list.
I have always been fascinated with African hunting safaris for some reason. Perhaps it was from being allowed to go into an older relatives trophy room when I was a child. I have never been interested in the modern version of safaris that we see today, but the old style of months long walking safaris. Philip Hope Percival lamented the introduction of the motorcar onto the African scene as he deemed it unsporting. I will never condone the wanton slaughter of animals, which did happen. But at the same time I am capable of “perspective through their eyes” and I understand it was a totally different era. I don’t have to agree with it but I can at least comprehend that things were vastly different. And humans judge others, especially today.
Take Ernest Hemingway as an example. Love him or hate him…he was real. It seems like every psychologist has a theory and that every book critic has an opinion. As a reader, I don’t have to agree with every statement he wrote…I just read the words and try to put them into context of the times he lived.
I think in todays terms, all of these books would probably come under fire and/or would be banned. But these were real people with real experiences and they have a story to tell. It is too easy to cast blame and shame on people from a different era. Everybody wants to jump on board a righteous cause, or to feel superior. Each and every one of these writers had flaws, some of them major, yet who am I to judge. I am a simple man with complex thoughts and emotions…yet I stay “in my lane” and can accept things for what they are or were. I could repeatedly preach about littering or sportsmanship but I’d rather SHOW that I practice what I preach and leave the bickering to others.
The final book I read was of more modern times and shows what is being done and what can be done in the Amazon. Interestingly, the root cause is the “human condition” and that won’t change.
I would love to be a gifted writer such as these authors I have mentioned, yet I have no formal training, rather I read and dissect their work and try to learn more about how it’s done. Being an autodidact, it takes time and effort but I will never stop trying to absorb as much information as possible. And I hope to improve the quality of this blog as much as possible. Thanks for reading…
Velox Seeker 