Joseph Campbell's Mythology and Me

My husband's family is a family of hunters. As a former vegetarian, this is something that took some getting used-to. His grandfather, a burly mountain man who makes chainsaw sculptures in his free time, owns acres of land covered by towering, ancient trees. As soon as hunting season begins in the fall, my husband's father and grandfather are out in the woods, stalking deer, killing them, cutting them into pieces and storing the meat in the freezer. A deer becomes steak, hamburgers. This is far removed from the usual modern way of acquiring one's meat. My mother, upon hearing of their hunting exploits always says something disapproving. "Why can't they just get their meat from the store, like most people do?" In a way, I agree with her. Sometimes I think it must take a twisted sort of person to willfully choose to go out and shoot an animal rather than buy one from the grocery store. Then again, I reason, that deer leads a much better life in the woods than a cow on a farm. I would rather live my life running through the woods, raising my babies, eating and sleeping and free than in a cramped pen, exposed to all of the atrocities of modern factory farming.