There are people who get their outdoor adventures by wearing cross-trainers while jogging in the local park, and then there are those who hie off to the arse-ends of the Earth while still in their teens to learn ancient arts from those who still practice them in the ancient ways.
The former is easier, but the latter is way, way cooler.
I flew a red-tailed hawk all through high school. I'll be damned if I have the time now that I'm in the real world...
ReplyDeleteTHIS is the way to waste taxpayer dollars.
ReplyDeleteStaghounds,
ReplyDeleteAgreed!
wow...way cooler indeed.
ReplyDeletethe summer i was sixteen, my bud and i bought matching honda cb450 dohc bikes (mine blue, his tangerine) and hit the road for a two-month cross-country tour. that was frickin' awesome, and afterwards i was pretty sure i'd skip college and be a biker dude fulltime after graduation.
well, i skipped college alright but never made it to graduation because i celebrated my return in august by promptly making my girlfriend pregnant...we finished school together at night, married that december, and welcomed our baby girl in april while we were both still seventeen.
the biker thing would have been cool, though i'm not sure how i would have made an income, and i've kept my hand in at riding with a succession of hondas, harleys, bimmers, trumpies, and even a vw trike...
but marrying that little five-foot-nothing blonde georgia girl, coming up on thirty eight years ago, was the best thing i ever did, even though it meant delaying the next cross country trek by a few decades and replacing the scooter with a motorhome, two dogs, and a cat.
i hope that young falconer lady realizes all her dreams, but you never know when a fork in the road is going to come along; best to take life as it comes and make the most of what God gives you.
jtc
Sorry Tam but you are now a distant second on my heroine list. A 17 year old female who flies eagles, drinks vodka and can probably whip ass on 1/2 the male population. I see a novel here.
ReplyDeleteI've seen ahunting eagle.
ReplyDeleteWaaay cooler than a flipping parrot.
Show up with one of those and the pirates all shut up.
A toast to that young lady, and all like her.
ReplyDeleteBirds of prey: The original smart bomb.
ReplyDeleteJim
Ass kickin'.
ReplyDeleteI am humbled.
ReplyDeleteMay more old-fashioned human beings, like her, flourish.
They are the best of homo sapiens, and have always been rare.
John, the Red
Very cool. I made a similar choice in 1968 and wound up doing two tours in the RVN under Uncle Sugar's Travel.
ReplyDeleteIn retrospect, excitement is over-rated. But that's just my opinion.
She makes me feel like such a waste of oxygen...
ReplyDeleteGlorious, glorious lady, that. Thanks SO MUCH for the link.