A short rant and an essay on bears
(if no one minds)
I hate to do this but I have to vent about something going on... I'm
feeling rather hurt and discouraged right now because of people again,
not even the people out there trying to bring harm to bears, but from
some of the very people trying their best to help them, people who I
considered some of my closest friends.
a good friend of mine just recently did a very hurtful thing, after
knowing this person for several years, of them being there to talk to
and share heartfelt opinions, ideas and thoughts with concerning bears,
they just suddenly one day got mad, shut me out and ignored me from then
on, they wouldn't even answer anything after that, like they had dropped
off the earth... when I finally had to pretty much confrontingly ask
them what had happened they said it's just because I focused too much on
"negative" things going on out there in the world with bears, and that
they only want to focus on the "positive" things.
I'm very sorry to anyone who feels this way....
...but just to defend myself, we can't always live life whistling and
looking the other way, there's just so much evil in the world... and we
live in such a critical era of human history... that if anything it's
insane to not be a rather hugely concerned about all the things going on
out there... good and bad.... Of course I believe in thinking and acting
positively, not letting it get you down and discouraged, not losing hope
and looking upwards, but to completely want to ignore the bad things out
there, and on a personal level to shoot the messenger of bad news, which
is very much how I feel right now, shot in the heart by someone I
thought was a dear friend, just because I brought attention to some
awful, awful things that are going on out there everyday in the world
whether we choose to ignore them or not... is just a thing that really
grinds my gears, you know what I'm saying?
Sorry about that, guys, we can get back to regular bear news now, I
just had to let off some steam about that...
Anytime I go to a library and walk past the children's literature
section I am reminded that even though we humans harm and mistreat bears
a whole lot and may one day make them extinct in the wild I think our
hominid species still has an obsessive affinity for these animals.
Why it seems like almost half of all children's books have bears as
characters in them, I wonder why this is... why would a species of
hominid find so much appeal in an entirely different class of organism,
to the point where the tales we tell our children are not anymore purely
tales of human experience, but tales of experience told from the
perspective of mythical characters of this other species, fictionally
placed into experiences, behaviors and situations familiar only to us?
Is this not mind-boggling, to think, primates sharing wisdom, morals,
values and lessons with their offspring not through tales about
themselves and their experiences but fables about completely different
organisms? As if characters of our own species are not as endearing to
children...
Do humans, particularly as children but I think it remains as they grow
older as well, have some sort of instinctual maternal/paternal
psychological association when they see big, warm, fuzzy secure
bear-like characters, that makes bears so hugely appealing as characters
to see and experience books and toys and cartoons and movies and
everything else, I think there is something to that... In the animal
kingdom there is a warmth, nobility, wisdom and innocence evoked in
their character that can never be conveyed as well with human
characters.
The bear, perhaps by its naturally uncanny anthropomorphic physiology
alone, tugs on the human associative psyche. I think that because of
this our two species are destined to share fates together on this world
and on others far, far into the future, I do not think humanity will
ever allow bears to completely vanish, it will be sad if a time does
come when bears can only exist in captivity or on very small protected
ranges, but I believe bears in the future will have other ways to live
and exist in the universe, especially if our species can help it, and we
will. Our species cannot help but admire them.
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