A DEER SKULL SET ON A HILL… [Su, 3-7-21]

CHRIST IN WINTER: Reflections On Faith & Life for the Years of Winter

A DEER SKULL SET ON A HILL…    [Su, 3-7-21]

 My old friend, Jim Bortell, is a master naturalist. He loves outdoor stuff. Recently, on a nature walk, he found the skull—no other skeleton parts—of a whitetail deer. [I personally can id a whitetail deer only if I can see the white tail, but that’s a different problem.] He debated about taking it home. He would have as a kid. Maybe he would have when his own kids and grands were little. But now?

He’d have to hide it from Roberta, for she is a woman of dignity, rationality, and aplomb, who would not care to have it on the mantle with the spring flowers. Of course, neither would she relish suddenly find it staring at her when she picked up a new towel from the stack in the bathroom closet, which is where it would likely be if Jim tried to hide it, for, as with many of us, they live in drastically downsized quarters. So downsized they might be called dimes or nickels.

Even if you still live in a big house when old, you end up using only a little bit of your living space—bedroom, bathroom, kitchen, TV room. Too much trouble to sweep and dust all those unnecessary rooms. There would be lots of hiding places for a deer skull, but then you’d also forget where it was… until you heard a shriek…

Jim decided that leaving the skull where it laid was better than making an attempt to hide it at home. He tried to portray it as a decision in harmony with nature and nature’s way of life and death. Actually, I’m sure it was to keep from having his own skull whacked upside and left outside for someone to find and wonder at. Not physically whacked; Roberta’s not that kind of woman. But there are other ways to deal with your husband when he brings something home and tries to hide it.

Jim probably has one of those hollowed-out Bibles, but it's too small for a deer skull. It’s hard to hide stuff in small quarters, regardless of how enticing it is to keep that stuff, be it physical or emotional.

Be especially careful about trying to hide something “under a bushel.” I have it on good authority that’s the first place they’ll look.

John Robert McFarland

I learned about the skull Jim didn’t take home from his email blog, Green Thoughts. If you’d like, I’m sure he’d put you on the mailing list. jmbortell@gmail.com