FROM THE EDITOR
THE TRAGIC WISDOM OF TRAPPING Knowing the origin of what puts food on your plate, and taking an active part in it, the sense of autonomy and the full weight of responsibility, are all part of this thing called tragic wisdom experienced during a kill. The harvest. The dispatch. The kill. That feeling of excitement and joy combined with a deep internal sadness as you watch an individual whose species you respect and admire die. As trappers we inevitably deal with a lot of death. It’s a more intense, personal experience than most people could ever know, and when you’re running a productive trapline, it can happen a lot. Some people call trappers bloodthirsty killers who enjoy inflicting pain on animals. We know that’s not true, and that they’ll never experience the weight of emotions that flood a trapper’s consciousness at the time of dispatch. But how do we explain it? Why the extraordinary mix of joy and sorrow? What’s going on in our minds and how do we communicate that with the non-hunting and trapping community? And for some of us, how do we justify it to ourselves? In his 2001 paper “Sport Hunting, Eudaimonia, and Tragic Wisdom”, philosopher James Tantillo explores the emotions hunters experience during the kill, and attempts to describe why we feel the way we do, and why it’s okay, and perhaps a critical part of being purely human. While Tantillo deals specifically with sport hunting, I see a direct connection to our experience as trappers.
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