Today I would like to talk about a hunting trip that I just returned from. Unlike most hunters I am a bit peculiar about what I hunt. I have a passion to hunt for Big-Eyed Deers. They are such rare and beautiful creatures. Like wasabi, once you have discover it it’s hard to go without! Hunting for Big-Eyed Deers is like one of these things. I got introduced to this sport at Ogilvy & Mather but it was James Webb Young who truly showed me the art of the game! Here I would like to narrate to you my experience from this hunting trip in the deserts of Saudi Arabia – one of the most challenging environments to hunt for Big-Eyed Deers!
The first thing about a Big-Eyed Deer hunting trip like any other trip for that matter is the preparation. One needs to look at all the variables in play. What is the terrain like? What environmental challenges need to be overcome? What are the other hunting tribes doing? Who is the Big-Eyed Deer being hunted for? For those who are not familiar with a Big-Eyed deer. It’s a powerful symbolic creature, somewhat like the Pegasus from Greek Mythology. Hunting a Big Eyed Deer is no ordinary hunt! Ensnaring one not only sends a strong message to all the other hunting tribes but the inhabitants of the land also tend to revere the hunt and hold it in high regard in their hearts and minds, sometimes for a very long time.
Following the preparation comes the most grueling and toughest phase of the hunt. The search. What makes this hunt so beautiful is that no one Big-Eyed Deer looks like the other? Most of the time you don’t exactly know what you are looking for. From a distance what may look like the real thing may simply be a small eyed deer. Sometimes, it maybe the progeny of another Big-Eyed Deer and is still not the real thing. Unlike most other creatures who follow a predictable pattern a Big-Eyed Deer can show up anytime. Sometimes it maybe in the wee hours of the night, lurking somewhere in the dark waiting to be found, at other times it will catch you unexpectedly as you go about. It almost seems to me that the Big-Eyed Deer is watching you from a distance, playing hard to get, waiting to see if you are the one who deserves to be graced by it’s presence. Are you the one who will perservere endlessly to find it, not giving up?
It’s like when you have tried almost everything, roped in a dozen or more some small eyed deers on the way, will it reveal itself. And when it does! What a sight it is! You are almost in awe of it’s presence. It’s majestic beauty captivates you. It will fight you like the banshees from Pandora, wrestling to be freed but once you rope him in he will be all yours for life. Another feather in your hunting cap! You then rightfully give the Big-Eyed deer to the tribe who paid for the hunt but no matter what you do the pride and glory of the hunt will remain with you till the end of time! It’s this high my friends that is one of the most addictive feelings in the world!
So when is the next hunting trip!
Reposted from the Interplay Blog