I have been dreaming about bears for more than 30 years. When I began these dreams, I never had any particular affinity for bears. My favorite animal had always been the otter. I love their silliness, sleekness and lovely velvety eyes and cutsie pie pug noses. So when my first bear dream happened, I was puzzled to say the least. Subsequently, I have had three more at important junctures in my life. The last one was several years ago, when I dreamed that a huge fierce grizzly and I were merging. I awoke feeling wonderful.
Over these years of bear dreams, I have read copiously about bears--all kinds of them. I have lots of books about bears. I have pictures of bears. Little statues of bears. Bears have become a feature in my life.
In native American lore, bears symbolized the inner self. A return, a meditation and a bringing forth of inner knowledge. In Celtic lore, bears stood for the fierce mother. So I guess you can see both of those strains of thought in my writing.
The prospect of polar bear extinction is unpardonable. Not only are they beautiful and powerful, but they are part of our world self knowledge. More so than any other animal except chimps and gorillas, bears appear human like. We can see our playfullness, our fierceness, work-ethic, our intelligence and protectiveness, our love of sweetness and our laziness, reflected in bear behavior. Are we witnessing our future extinction reflected in the precarious situation of polar bears?
I refuse to accept that we are that stupid.
Clearly the head of the Dept of Interior believes we are. But I believe we can change our ways.
I am signing off now. I have to prepare for a meeting with other school parents tomorrow morning to deal with the discovery of asbestos in my daughter's school.
There are five fierce mothers meeting tomorrow morning. Watch out for Bear Energy.
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