Hey y'all this is an older story that hasn't been shared much, as I am not sure what to do with it. I'd love feedback as well as criticism as I want to be a better writer and wrote better stories

Ignorance is Bliss?

The Old Saying “Ignorance is bliss” is never more true then when you compare an outdoorsman to regular person. Having spent most of the free time in my life outdoors, I have seen, heard, and experienced things very few other people ever have. I have learned the animal’s tracks, the bird songs, and the edible plants of the woods and water. I know that I see and hear things that 80% of the population would have no idea that they had even missed, and I wonder if they even care.

A great example of “Ignorance is bliss” was my kindergarten teacher, Mr. Zeron. While he was one of the finest teachers I ever had, his knowledge of animals was limited on my scale. One day Mr. Zeron gave us an assignment of trying to find a picture of an animal for each letter of the alphabet. I was very excited about this project and quickly went to work cutting up my Dad’s Fur Fish Games, Outdoor Life’s and Field and Stream’s along with a few of Mom’s National Geographic’s for the pictures I wanted. I had all of the letters done (with the exception of X) except for the letter B. I wanted a picture of a buffalo, but could not find one anywhere. Finally, in an old Outdoor Life I found a picture of a musk ox.
While I was cutting it out my father asked me what I was doing.
“I’m going to use this for B for buffalo,” I said to him.
“Michael that isn’t a buffalo” he said to me.
“Oh I know that Dad it’s a musk ox, but Mr. Zeron won’t know’ I replied.
I took in my project and as I knew more animals than the other kids did, I had more pictures and animals. Mr. Zeron selected mine as the best and set it up for the parent teacher night that was coming up.
My Mother, on seeing my project, let out a quiet laugh at my musk ox/buffalo. When she got to do the conference with Mr. Zeron, he asked if I had any help doing my project, to which she replied, “No he did it all himself.”
“Well he did a wonderful job on it” Mr. Zeron answered back.
My mother waited until the end of the night and pulled Mr. Zeron aside. She said, “Mr. Zeron I have to tell you something about Michael’s project.”
“Oh and what is that?” he asked.
“Well for the letter B he used a picture of a musk ox and not a buffalo” she said quietly.
“Oh that’s ok, he probably didn’t know the difference” Mr. Zeron replied.
My mother smiled and told him “Oh he knew the difference, but he also knew that you wouldn’t know the difference.” She later told me he started laughing so hard he was almost crying. He told her how impressed he was that a 5 year old had more knowledge of animals then he did.

Another example of an adult not knowing as much about wildlife as I did happened one summer night when I was about nine. My family and our good friends Harry and Betty Drass and their children were headed to a week long vacation in the mountains. We had stopped and gotten the keys from Dr. Scorricelli (whom my mother worked for), and then drove back up the road. The cabin we were going to stay in was about a 3 miles up the main road and then another mile from the road. One the way back up the road from Dr. Scoricelli’s house a big fat porcupine waddled across the road in front of us. Dad pointed to it out the window to the Drass’s (as they had probably not seen one before).
We turned the cars off the blacktop and were going down the dirt road to the cabin, when we came upon a rather large (about six inches in diameter) tree blocking the path. Dad and Harry got out seeing if they could possibly move it themselves but it was far too heavy.
“Hey Charlie, it’s too bad we don’t have that beaver right about now” Harry said to my Dad.
“What are you talking about Harry?” my Dad replied.
“That beaver back there on the road, if we had that thing, it could have chewed this log in half, in no time for us,” Harry said half seriously.
Dad stifling his laughter said, “Harry that was a porcupine not a beaver.”
“Oh oh ok, I didn’t know” Harry said, then a second later “Charlie don’t tell my kids it was a porcupine and not a beaver. I told them it was a beaver and they were amazed to see one.”
“No problem Harry it was a beaver” Dad replied winking at Harry.
Luckily, Harry did have an ax in his trunk and he and Dad made short work of the tree and removed it from the path. When Dad got in the car he told my Mother and I what actually happened. He also sternly warned me that it was a “beaver” and not a porcupine that went across the road, and if any of the Drass kids asked it was a “beaver.” Therefore, neither my Mother nor I let on that it was a porcupine and not a beaver to anyone.
Many years later, we did finally tell his wife and children the whole truth behind that story, and now we all tease him about his “beaver” and the porcupine.

On a beautiful spring, morning a few years ago, my brother Matthew, my boss Dave and I were taking a break from landscaping and eating lunch. We were just sitting there talking and enjoying the break. Dave squinted and looked up in the sky. I was wondering what he was looking at as the only thing up there was an old turkey vulture.
“Wow look at the size of that hawk!” Dave exclaimed.
Mathew and I both scanned the sky slowly from horizon to horizon, looked at Dave (who was still staring up into the sky) and scanned the sky one more time.
In unison, Matthew and I both asked “Where?”
Dave pointed up at the turkey vulture and said, “Right there the big black one.”
Matthew and I sort of chuckled at Dave, and he got a quizzical look on his face.
I said “Dave that is a turkey vulture up there, not a hawk.”
“How can you be so sure?” he asked.
“Well the first thing is that your “hawk” is solid black, and most of the hawks we have around here are red tails, which have a coppery brown back, and a white belly flecked with brown spots that gets white and less flecked as the hawk grows older. If you look the vulture’s head is visible and it is pink or black, but on a hawk, the head is more of a rounded hump in the front. Another thing you will notice is the vulture rarely if ever flaps its wings, preferring to soar on the thermals. Now don’t get me wrong hawks soar on thermals as well but will flap a lot more often. The final thing is that vultures are about 3 times bigger than hawks” I replied.
Dave sat there looking thunderstruck. Just then, a red winged black bird did its brassy twickle deeeeee song from the marsh behind us. Matthew yelled “Red Winged Blackbird!” before I had a chance to one up him on the birdcall.
Dave turned and looked at us, and asked, “Do you guys know all the bird calls?” Matthew said with a big grin “Well of course we don’t know them all, but we certainly know the more common birds.”
Dave went back to eating him lunch looking a little crestfallen.

The final example of someone being blissfully ignorant happened about a decade ago In Ridley Creek State park. It was a warm humid spring day and my friend Keith and I were walking the road along the creek, scouting out good-looking holes for the upcoming trout season. As we were walking along, I could hear the “spring peepers” across the creek in a low marshy area. Peep, peep, peep, peep they went, sounding like a chorus of hundreds. I smiled inwardly as the spring peepers always signaled the coming of spring to me.
Keith being a city boy asked, “Hey what’s making that noise?”
“Oh those are spring peepers” I replied.
He gave me a look that said, “What the heck are you talking about?”
“They’re a tiny little frog that is the first to come out in the spring when it gets warm,” I told him.
As we are standing there listening to the spring choir, a man and his very young son walk up beside us.
“Daddy what’s making that noise?” the little boy asked his father.
“Those are crickets,” the man told his son.
I looked at the father in amazement. Keith knew I hated when people got things wrong with reference to nature, and he split a big watermelon grin waiting for me to advise the father of his inaccuracy. I turned to tell the man he was mistaken, but when I saw the little boy crouched down with his head cocked toward the swamp listening intently with a big smile on his face, I just couldn’t do it. I figured the man thinks he is right, and his little boy thinks his Dad knows everything, and I am not going to dispel that myth to a child so young. I just shook my head and walked away.

I have made it my mission to teach my children how to observe and not just look at the world around them. I want to make sure then can distinguish a hawk from a vulture, and a frog from a cricket. I want them to know what berries and mushrooms they can eat safely from the woods, and what plants to avoid (like poison ivy). I want them to know the more common bird songs and animal calls.

Sometimes I feel sorry for all of those people who never see or hear the entire natural world going on around them. Then again, sometimes I am happy only a select few of us can see, hear, feel and truly experience nature in all its glory.

I am blissfully ignorant on this topic ......cannot read more than three lines per post

It probably is until it kills you.
Ignoring stuff can be dangerous.

Boco it isn't about ignoring things, its about what the rest of the world doesn't see, and we do, and they are blissfully ignorant of what hey dont see or notice

Took my brother in law deer hunting. Has spent his whole life in Denver. (he gets upset and says Aurora) We were both in our twenties was in the late 70's. Mule deer in CO. we were not stand hunting but walking. I got him several shots at deer. Mulies are prone to stand still like rabbits and look at you often. He never saw any of them with me pointing at them till they spooked and ran. You have to learn how to see a lot of stuff it seems to me.

I wish I could be blissfully ignorant again.........

Thing is at least with animals, they,the animals, don't have anything to do with their lives so why would they be expected to know anything about them.

Sniper - it wasn't until I was married and got 3 kids with the job, that I saw how most people dont see, hear, or notice what I did. I had assumed all my life that everyone saw and noticed the same things I did, which is what spurred me to write this story.

You will if you live long enough and get dementia.

I went south and hunted mule deer with my brother in Idaho once, I was shocked how stupid those things are

Mike, your life experiences got me to thinking about things in a way that only the insiders would know. For instance I had a city cousin whose mother (my dads sister) had killed herself when she was only 10 yrs old. My mom would have her come and stay a couple of weeks each summer to kinda break the stress for her, as her and her step mother really didn't have much in common. I taught her how to fish, build a teepee, how to make your own butterfly collection. Since I never ever had a problem with poison ivy there wasn't a reason for me to tell her about that, it wasn't that important to me, she learned what poison ivy was on her own and it wasn't a lesson she ever forgot. I think we learn things like what birds are what by a slow process that we don't even realize how we learned it and once we learn something its a given and how we got the knowledge is not important anymore, or at least not as important as being thankful for that knowledge.

Sometimes I wonder just how does a goose know its supposed to fly south in the fall. Do they learn it from their parents or is it just a strong sense to go where the food is ?

I sometimes wonder if a person was knocked out in an accident and had amnesia and didn't even know who he was and woke up on the street in a big city how would he survive without any street knowledge? It might depend on his will to survive. Learn where he could obtain food and shelter. Maybe by watching the others in the same predicament, even though different causes. He could learn where the free food was, how to get a government handout, how to get a post office box to get those handouts. Its a learning process most likely picked up from others. Getting into that cycle is a lot easier that breaking out of it, esp. when encouraged for whatever reason. Somethings are learned. Poked by a porcupine or sprayed by a skunk are life lessons and it brings out the Adam in us to name that critter for what it is, lol.

I like reading your articles, they get the mind to thinking for oneself. I was taught that being educated was being taught to think for oneself and not just following pro quo that is law and if you don't have an equal something for something then you aren't allowed in the pool.

Oh my gosh dude, your story hit the nail on the head! Just yesterday an old friend of mine, a middle aged female who now lives in Tennessee, posted a picture of a paw print in the snow. She said no dogs ever go into that area so wanted to know whether the print was from a wolf or a bobcat. I believe it was a big dog running at large or possibly a coyote so that's what I posted. I was practically pulling my hair out as post after post was saying wolf, mountain lion, bobcat. Grrr!

Thanks for the kind words guys I appreciate it. As a writer I always fear my stories aren't as good or well written as I think LOL, so having you guys give it t at thumbs up helps me greatly.

That's an awful thing to say about brothers!

Great story's.

It is sad and sadly only going to get worse.

I came out of the mine one night at midnight, it was 21 below. The worst part was that you came out the intake air travel way, there was 100,000 CFM of air moving in a 3’ by 20’ roadway.

You were driving at 15 mph into a 20 mph air current. Brutal.

Ignorance isn't bliss, it's just Ignorance. But we are all Ignorant in some ways. Even if we are superb trackers and observers, we can always learn from someone else, but it requires a bit of humility to admit we don't know everything.

Don't know about blissfully ignorant but sure enjoyed reading those stories.
Thank you

I would be the fool if I said that about my brother, he's way more ejumacated than me (biologist)