June 4th, 2008  a Wednesday

No offense, but sometimes I get tired of being a bear in a human world.  Don't get me wrong.  You guys are the greatest.  But you know how you just feel out of place somehow and long for that sense of belonging that you can only get from your own clan?  Well, I'm having one of those days.  Tired of trying to fit in, pretending there's not that much difference between me and other bloggers, and putting up with the discrimination that comes from people who think I am just silly.  Today I just want to be a bear.

Much to my horror, when seeking other bears on-line (not that I imagined I would find any soulmates using this method, nor should you) the first thing that came up was the Teddy Bears, a band with their own website.  Their logo was an awful mean looking bear with the words "teddy bears" coming out of its mouth.  There were photos of people in regular clothes wearing giant bear heads, also mean looking.  I guess its a free country and all that but this was just disturbing to me.  I am personally going to boycott their music.

Now feeling fragile, I revisited the wonderful story of Teddy Roosevelt refusing to shoot the bear cub captured in the now famous cartoon (above), just to build up my teddy bear spirit.  And there was a similar story, considered legend rather than fact.  When Teddy was staying at a hotel in Colorado while on a hunting expedition, the maids gathered old scraps of material and improvised a stuffed bear to console him when his hunting was unsuccessful.  This obviously tells us that we are legendary for providing comfort. 

I learned that there is an actual name for bear lovers based on the Greek "arcto" for bear and "philos" for love.  Yes, the world is full of arctophiles.  How 'bout that?  

And naturally there are many, many collectors across the world who buy and sell vintage teddy bears for lots of money and display them at shows.  I guess this may be considered an honor but I prefer bears that are handled and hugged and dressed and undressed and dragged all over the place.  Working bears.  

It is tempting to live the easiest life possible, doing the least amount of work, and having the most amount of fun.  But would you rather be a pampered, fussed over show dog who gets a lot of treats but spends your days traveling and waiting in a cage to parade around in front of adults or a beloved mixed breed family dog who runs around playing fetch with the kids all day and chasing the neighbor's cat? 

It's not so bad being the first bear with a blog.  Yeah, people make fun of me and don't take me seriously and assume I have nothing important to contribute to the conversation.  I'll bet some of you can relate to that.  But I'm not going to stop talking.  Although I admit its tempting to give up and go back to my cushy life.  If an African American can snag the presidential nomination, and a woman can come so very close, I may as well keep working hard to further my cause and the cause of bears everywhere.  Who knows how far I could go?  And, hey, who knows how far you could go, too.  The comfort zone isn't all its made out to be. 

GR