As this true story about the bear explains, there is a way to get what we want.
Two days after we moved into our current mountain home, I walked outside the sunroom into the backyard to put out my bird feeder. I noticed the stench of a foul trash can, but thought nothing of it—until a brown bear ran toward me without stopping. I yelled, but he didn’t stop. The bird feeder was large and heavy, and I dropped it as I ran back into our home.
Our two dogs heard me yelling and dashed into the sunroom. The bear continued rushing toward the bird feeder, where it had fallen just beyond the steps near the paver stones. The bear didn’t like the sound of their barking and ran back into the woods.
We continued unpacking and I put away my thoughts of nature’s wild creature.
A few weeks later, I planted my garden. While weeding one evening two months later, I smelled the trash can odor again. Looking around, I didn’t see the bear. However, the next morning, my garden had been ravaged. The efforts of my labor had been ruthlessly taken.
We hired a contractor to build a fence around our backyard and garden, and he did a beautiful job. We could see out, but wild creatures couldn’t invade our outdoor sanctuary.
All went well until the following spring. I put the bird feeder out again, thinking that no unwanted visitors would bother it since it was behind a strong, safe fence. Now we could see the bird feeder as well as the woods around our home as we ate at our kitchen table, and life was peaceful again.
I brought the bird feeder in at night to avoid tempting a bear to try to enter our yard. But still three days later, in broad daylight, the bear broke and removed some of the pickets in our new custom fence. He entered our yard and violated it by turning over our compost container and destroying our bird feeder. His actions forced us to take further action to protect the area around our home.
That wild child of nature disliked me
because he wanted something from me
that the former owner of our home provided
and I refused to allow him access to it.
He thought he needed something from me that he could get himself. Unappreciative of the fact that we deliberately left over a quarter of an acre filled with wild blueberries and raspberries unfenced, he became irritated when we blocked his access to our yard. Unfortunately, his irritation turned violent.
Recently as I watch the news,
the bear often has come to my mind.
I realize that the nature of humans and bears is similar.
When some people suspect that another person, especially a politician, might not give them what they want or work with them, they become irritated first and then angry. They don’t wait to find out if the person will indeed meet their needs in some way.
Coexisting is the best thing to do, since never before has everyone had the same political viewpoint; feeling irritated, becoming angry, harassing others, and becoming violent only separates us further from our opposition. Sadly, this separation prevents us from getting our needs met.
Perhaps as the species with the highest mental capacity, we should find common ground and work together instead of acting like a wild animal.
Don’t you think Americans are smarter than a bear,
smart enough to solve problems?
Let the encouraging words in these near a river posts help you
soar like an eagle above life’s storms.
Everyone makes mistakes, but
We need to try to understand people.
Also we shouldn’t forget our purpose in life…
We absolutely must encourage peaceful coexistence.
