News from the front

Recent events from my life:
Finals are over. I did well, I think, on Bankruptcy and Professional Responsibility and average on Estate Planning. I expect I did well on the other non-finals courses, too, and if I am correct it will have been a very good year. Immediately after getting done with school, I went hunting Wild Turkeys with my brother-in-law Jeron. This hunt was successful; I shot a jake (an immature male) that weighed probably around 15-20 pounds and we ate it last night. It was nothing short of delectable and fed six people well.

Nonetheless, I admit that I have some mixed feelings about the whole hunting phenomenon. I was struck when gutting the bird how much the body really is just like a farm turkey, and for some reason there are no feelings of guilt when preparing one of those. Yet because I actually took the life of the thing it made me consider the role we have in the taking of lives and consuming them. I am obviously not a vegetarian but that is not to say that I haven't thought very carefully about the issue of meat consumption. Basically, I feel that if I am willing to have someone else do the killing for me and I pay someone to get the fruits of that act, it is intellectually dishonest to not be willing to do it myself. I must say that I certainly wouldn't have taken the shot if I didn't have a clean shot that I was sure would more or less instantly kill the bird, which is exactly what happened. The bird did not suffer; it was essentially just lights out.

Suffering for me is really the evil to be avoided. I believe that humans are animals and animals are not that dissimilar to humans. I believe that animals can suffer and no animal that we consume should be made to suffer more than is absolutely necessary to kill it. I can't make that final leap to vegetarianism, however, mainly because it is pie in the sky idealism to believe that not eating meat will do anything to stop suffering or can undo the fruits of evolution; we humans are omnivores, not herbivores, and many other creatures eat meat. It is natural. Death and suffering are natural, too. Many animals deal death in much less humane ways than we do.

The bird I shot is the first non-insect, non-fish that I have ever deliberately killed. I don't feel great about that. But I also don't feel bad about it, per se. I have had an experience that enables me to really evaluate a bunch of hot-button issues from the inside and I still have yet to fully sort out how I completely feel about it.

Other stuff

Saw the new Matrix movie; the special effects are nothing short of groundbreaking. The philosophical aspects I didn't exactly get, although this review is more enamored with its plot turns (do not click that until after you have seen the movie) than I.


Jeff sent me this link about three nuns that are going to prison for a long time for breaking into a nuclear silo site to protest. Nuns, people.


I am leaving for Duluth in ten days to start my summer job. Before then Mag and I are going camping at Maplewood State Park. Woo hoo!