Large Fierce Mammal

Representative sample of a “best day ever” highlighting both the ephemeral nature and extreme subjectivity of the interpretation. (Buffalo Hunt by self-described “Artist by night”, deskridge. See more on the Artist’s website here. Click to enlarge.)

“Best day ever!”

An all too common utterance from the mouths of the same subset of the Great Unwashed who seasonally prattle on about their “Resolution” for a new year, and the check boxes (most of them fated to remain unchecked) on their “bucket list”.

Spoken as though the speaker is dead but refuses to acknowledge it. Like there’s only one such day to a customer and they’ll never have another. As though they’re the same person frozen in stasis from the moment they became a vampire a week before puberty kicked in so their sense of what a “best day” even is will remain forever stunted.

As offspring of Adventurers, the LFM Sons are steeped continuously in an atmosphere of teachable moments hung on a framework of mental and physical challenge. Their understanding of people, heritage, Tools, the meaning of being the Animal called Human. Food, its flavours and contexts, meaning and origins, stand in extreme contrast to that of not only their contemporaries but a large component of the “adult” population within their sphere. As vital contrast, all this is backlit by Tradition and Ancestral History.

It is not unusual to hear some variant of the utterance, “Best day ever!” coming from one of them on the trail, at the serving of a meal, or a combination of the two seasoned with some wider experience. Occasionally the question is asked of me or their Incomparable Mother — “What was YOUR best day ever?” — uttered from an understanding drawn of their own lived experience that life is dynamic, and so a “Best day” of a month ago may have since been supplanted in the new reality of the one being asked.

For my part, and in answer to that question, I certainly  have had, and fully expect to have, many Best days, however none of them will be Best ever, nor even Best so far. That would imply I indulge in some kind of sorting or grading system and that, my fine Boys, runs a bit too close to examining the dentition of an equine endowment for my liking. The final ruling on my own Best days will come when I stop having days altogether, but I will posit that at that point, I will have had the Best of everything Real and True in this world.

To that I would add that a Life well Lived is not about seeking and experiencing a single “Best” day, but rather “Best” days that are part of a larger framework of Worthiness. Worthiness for the Day, and for the very Best of travelling companions.

Secret Ingredients

By LFM

Seek for those things that need to be sought,
Catch onto those things that need to be caught.
Teach thou those things that must needs be taught,
Then repeat all again lest life matter for nought.