Sustainable WNC

Who Speaks for Bear?  

“As for me I am a child of the god of the mountains.”  

       Who could ever know the Magic and Mystery of these living and breathing wild Beings?

         For generation upon generation Native peoples in Europe,  Asia  and the Americas, have honored the bear in mythology, legend, folklore, stories,  songs and dances, and even in their clothing and shelters.  Bears  have been powerful symbols of wilderness, wildness, and wild freedom.  They’ve always enjoyed the freedom to be as wild as they want to be.

   They have excited the imagination and provoked awe and wonder at their strange and mysterious human-like qualities.  Cultures from around the world have told stories around the camp fire about people encountering and sometimes even marrying (!) these furry four-legged creatures.  And my wife reminds me that even today stories abound about the woman who married a bear.

         Could it be that bears are really people behind their fur coats and furry masks?  Or could some people really be bears in disguise?  Sometimes they even get up and walk around like we do on our hind legs. Maybe when they go home to their mountain cabins, they take off their overalls and just let their fur hang out!  Could you imagine your best friend confiding in you about their true nature?  Ha!  Maybe we all had better be careful just who it is that we growl at  . . . .

         Even beyond the mountains, Bears still live and roam widely in our language, too:  When our mothers “bear” children, the bear is present at our birth.  Or we “bear” good news, we carry or tranmit some information, and the bear is there.  Or we can’t “bear” to hear of animal suffering, or we support the right to “bear” arms (or arm bears for that matter!), or we get our “bearings,” the bear shows us the way, or we grin and “bear” it.  The bears are there for our patience, tolerance, and endurance.

         And these wild ones roam far and wide, beyond our wildest dreams they roam –  into the stars, even.  When you look up into the night sky who do you see but Ursa Major, the Great Mother Bear, helping us to get our bearings and find our true path with heart, the pole star, or we see  Ursa minor, the little bear daughter roaming the heavens in the night sky.

         For us humans, bears can evoke tenderness, love, and security,  which must be  why we give our children Teddy Bears or Care-bears to protect them, our cubs,  in their cribs.

         They inspire us with their awesome strength and power, as with grizzlies and polar bears, and they tickle us with much mirth and humor when we think of Winnie the Pooh or a black bear up a tree taking honey with his face in an agitated bee’s nest.

         Bears know how to survive in nature without fear.  Can you imagine that? — living in nature without fear?  What kind of amazing magic and power that would be!  No need for day-care, no formal education, no land ownership, no agriculture, no cities, no money, no insurance companies, no government, no jobs other than to eat and sleep and enjoy nature.  No wars and no pollution!  Can you imagine that? Who says that human beings are the most evolved terrestrial mammals?

         The bears know what to eat in every season, and where to find the roots and the berries and the nuts, and how to heal themselves with the medicinal plants.  They’re even able to find a warm cozy den for the winter without having to pay any rent at all.  Living free.  Living Wild.  Maybe all of us do have something to learn from the bears.

“My Paw is Sacred.                                                         The Medicinal Herbs are abundant.                                 My Paw is Sacred.