RAVINGS

That Wise Old Animal Person Digging Roots on the Sun-Baked Hillsides

During the winter I survived a health scare and in the spring my mother died and my inexplicable response to both of these events was to read all I could find out about bears. I found many titles from The Bear Den Website.

Three kinds of books are published in this country about bears. The first, typified by Larry Kaniut's best-selling Alaska Bear Tales and Stephen Herrero's Bear Attacks, focus in vivid detail on sudden aggressive encounters with grizzlies and to a lesser extent black bears. They include the most famous descriptions of bear maulings from the last two or three decades in the US and Canada.

The second kind of bear book focuses on Native American Indian myth, rituals and images as in David Rockwell's The Bear Book and reminds us what it was like to live intimately with such creatures 100 years ago. Even today, when Navajos talk about bears they rarely talk about maulings but speak instead about the spirit of the animal and its power. We learn from Rockwell that "the bear in the Indian mind is a different being from the one most of us know today."

There is a third kind of book in which the author is a naturalist, hunter or outdoors person who narrates hypnotically compelling fictional stories about grizzlies, polar bears, and black bears from these animals' own point of view. Of Bears and Man is a classic example by Mike Cramond.

Lastly, the late Timothy Treadwell's astonishing account of flying into the remotest Alaskan bush and living months at a time among grizzlies totally unaccustomed to humankind (Among Grizzlies) as well as his unforgettable Discovery video is an account of bears in a class by itself, as is Grizzly Years, Viet Nam veteran Doug Peacock's famous account of his meeting up with bears in Yellowstone's Rocky Mountain wilderness.

In my mind this winter there was no bear - only the faint sadness of growing ever older and the certainty of death. Spring brought my mother's futile and brief struggle to hang onto the thread of life at 58 pounds to an end. A week later, having dropped off her clothes at the Salvation Army's outdoor platform, I looked into the rear view mirror and saw through the clear plastic bag my mother's favorite bright pink fleece shirt, something she always wore when she had parceled out a little hope for her waning life. The form of a bear entered my mind at this point.

According to Native American tribes, animals were created before human beings. They were thus nearer to the Great Spirit and their qualities, their power, unpredictability and danger were the very qualities of this Spirit and demanded our respect and veneration. They were "fear-inspiring" objects. Today, of course we have many human beings who are unpredictable, powerful and dangerous: they push people off subway tracks, cut off the arms of teenage girls.

But creatures that come from the forest are spiritually clean, unlike creatures that come from the city. Fear-inspiring urban killers and maulers are not considered creatures of spiritual power and are not so honored.

I suppose it is possible to walk in Central Park at AM alone and without a weapon and if I did so I would be utterly terrified and pessimistic. Confronting any human at this hour would only serve to intimidate me further.

It is a whole different hike when you're in bear country. The fear is there. What's looming over the top of the hill that you can't see? Why do so many blueberries and willow bushes create a sudden lump of anxiety in the throat? A normal tourist in Denali doesn't carry a shotgun or a can of pepper spray - just a lot of good will and reverential awe for the great predators hidden amid the stunning beauty of the Alaskan Range. To see one of these grizzlies is to have a scripture suddenly revealed to you. It is a religious experience. These words of the Cree and Navajo and Pueblo become your words.

You are a great animal. The gift of your presence is of true value to me. I honor you. I want to please you.

This spring I tuned in to bear power, to that ancient bear who was afraid of nothing, respected nothing, not even death. I wanted to learn more about Great Grandfather and Great Grandmother, I wanted bear power myself.

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