Nature and the Pursuit of Life: The Woods Have a Way of Helping Us Cool Our Heads Down
David Farbman 11.21.12
Keeping our emotions in check is hard to do sometimes, but it’s in these challenging moments where keeping a cool head can allow you to fly past the competition. The best businessmen, the best gamblers, the best hunters know how to keep a cool head under pressure. Someone or something will always exist to test you, and the question is can you keep a cool head and not succumb to the fear? Frequently the difference between true Alpha Warriors and those who cannot hang long term is their ability to keep their cool under pressure.
The recently concluded presidential election fired up many of us regardless of which candidate you stood behind. After all, there were nearly $2 billion dollars dumped into the economy through marketing, PR, and advertising to try and propagandize us into trusting their campaign messages. The frustrating part is that when all the dust settles, after the votes are counted and the game is over (and it is a game, a competitive, drag down, all-out fighting game), 90% of all the data we received turns out to have been exaggerations aimed at our heads, and $2 billion is a ton of money to get inside of them. I am not implying that we have no conviction about our social, political, or economic views, but perhaps some of us have become a bit carried away. This past Thursday November 15th marked the opening day of firearm season in Michigan and this year more than ever I needed to retreat to the woods for solitude to get my head cooled down from all the noise out there lately.
Unless you have been living under a rock this election cycle, you have likely noticed that many people were, and are still hotter than cayenne pepper about the election. If I had a dollar for every time I heard someone say the sky was falling, I’d be a rich son of a gun. Candidly, I am sick of people regurgitating the same “oh, the economy is a mess” messages that they heard on an ad or listening to some radical media opinion, or a dinner conversation where the false propaganda became a guest at their table. My point is that perhaps we should all chill out and, as country singer Justin Moore says, “grow a set”. What have we become in this country? Have we lost our fortitude so much that we buckle on a sensationalist headline or about some fiscal cliff that is likely never going to happen? Try this on for size because it came to me straight from my deer blind. The sky is not falling; we are not going into a double dip recession and we should all chill out! Just as these thoughts came to me, a group of deer ran into the sunny clearing and I felt more relaxed.
The election is over and – to put it lightly – we chose our president in a rather unanimous fashion. The popular vote corresponded with the electoral college which means the system worked. Do you want to know what I loved so much about this past opening day of hunting season weekend? I loved being alone in my deer blind by myself with no noise. No BS politics, no cry-babies saying the sky is falling down, and instead I sat and built brain muscle, I built restraint and I got above the noise and decided I want to keep my cool under pressure. Believe it or not, the deer were not affected by the $2 billion in marketing. Nope, nature held her own as she always does. I didn’t kill a buck as I never saw what I was looking for, but I was ready to tag out had the right moment presented itself. In reflection, I don’t really care because this opening day was about checking out from the noise. After all the recent spin jobs carried out by too many political figures, pundits, reporters, and economists to name I just wanted to be alone with wildlife and nature surrounding me away from the weakness and the fear.
The breakthrough takeaway of my opening day weekend of gun season was that as a citizen I am not so concerned about entitlement, health care reform, or even a double dip recession. No, I am concerned that too many of the “good ones” in America have become WEAK. My question, as a mostly republican voter by the way, is where did the optimism go? Where did the self-restraint and the belief in something great go? This is the greatest damn country in the world, a country of independence. How, when and where did so many of us lose sight of this and become followers? Please don’t blame Obama, don’t blame people who are less financially fortunate than you, and let’s all stop with the excuses and panic. Take a good look in the mirror and ask yourself this question. What am I so scared of, and can I keep a cool head through all of this noise and believe in something greater?
I decided in my deer blind located in a clover field in Ellsworth, Michigan that am not selling out of the market and if I lose some paper money for a few months or even a year than so be it. I refuse to lose my head under pressure, and to succumb to this fear that is too prevalent. Thanks Rush, thanks Chris, thanks reporters from both sides, thanks scare-tactic, self-focused bloggers out there with your spins, but I choose strength under pressure and I am keeping my head cool and my thoughts independent! Thank God for the woods this past weekend and the time to cool my head down so I can become part of the solution and not the problem! I love this country and I love our freedom, and all that we represent. God bless America the greatest country of them all!
Happy Thanksgiving!
