“The Trapper's Last Shot”: A Response

I have been reviewing manuscripts for various publications for over 30 years. Occasionally I read a submission that stimulates me enough to request of the editor an opportunity to respond, to register my own thoughts on the subjects of the essay I have just reviewed. After reading “Commiseration with a Frontier Trapper: A Reflection by a First-Year Emergency Medicine Physician,” I realized that I had read just such a manuscript, for Dr. Guth had made me ponder, not only this entrancing image, but what it “means,” which I write in quotation marks because I came to realize that it meant something different to me than it did to Guth ( ). Furthermore, like all successful writing, his essay, and the image that inspired it, would not let me go; rather, the challenge to write a worthy response forced me to reach deeper into my analysis of this essay than I had when first reviewing it for a simple “accept or reject” decision. Moreover, and this consequence is not always predictable, it gave me pause, at a certain point, taking me into meta-analysis, into the meaning of meaning. Lastly, as though a reward for my efforts in researching this response, I made the acquaintance of a very interesting author, who, like William Ranney, the painter behind the image that occasioned this cascade of reflections from two authors, is a student of conflict.