Tuesday, May 03, 2005

Sleep.


Sleep
International Wolf Center Web Cam - Ely, MN

I love this picture!
Wolves are wild animals and elusive in the wild. It's incredible to be able to view them and study them.

Most of us can still remember when they were vilified and hated. Now they are seen as noble and beautiful creatures. I believe it's a change for the better.

At the IWC they have as little contact with the wolves as possible, so that they can study pack dynamics as they would occur in nature. I believe they only go in for vet care. I also hear that the wolves are often fed roadkill deer. (Quite a delicacy.)

Northern MN is one of the few places in the country that still has a thriving wolf population. If any of this is of even remote interest to you, consider checking out the work of Jim Brandenburg.

Brandenburg is a nature photographer who was done great work with National Geographic and lives among the wolves at a place called Ravenwood.

He also did an extraordinary book called Touched by The Light. The premise of the book was to only take 1 picture a day for 90 days (between the Autunmal Equinox and Winter Soltice.) Most photographers can easily go through many rolls of film a day, but he wanted to focus. The results were extraordinary.

Since then he has done a similar project called Looking for Summer. This one took place between Summer Soltice and Autumnal Equinox.

You can go to his gallery in Ely, watch the slideshows there, and just really get lulled into this sense of peace.

One of the images from Touched by The Light inspired the vampire story (of all things) that I'm working on now. It's called Poacher Killed Deer, and while a very sad image, it's also quite beautiful. A character in my story speaks for me when she talks of not being able to understand people killing for the sport of it, and not even needing (or taking) the meat.

Part of the reason that wolves were seen as "The Bad Guys" is because of their predatory nature. But they kill to eat, to survive, and to take care of their pack. Worlds away from killing just for the fun of it.

Do you guys know there is a place in Texas where people can hunt with a mouseclick? You pay the "nice" people and get to watch animals through webcams, and when you line up the unsuspecting animal: you click. This is a sport?

I'm not a hunter, and never will be, but I'll tell you the truth: I can accept hunting. I can sit down to eat with a man (or woman) who goes out and hunts(not eating the venison though!), but I cannot and will not abide some asshole who could get a video game, shoot all the pretend people and animals he (or she) wants, but prefers a Real Body Count!

In my world you earn the right to hunt by actually working for it -- not to mentioning having some reverence for the fact that an animal died. It has to be an interactive experience, and hunting by computer doesn't cut it.

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