i want to...but i am scared

Written by Kate on 8 November, 2006

Related to change: my relationship to fear

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This is what does it for me, stops me from feeling safe to explore the woods: the possibility of coming across one of these majestic but terrifying creatures. I know all the stats, they are more scared of me than I am of them and blah, blah, blah, but I am frightened to the point of immobility of these things nonetheless.

No so frightened though that I would shoot and kill them from the safety of inside my home as this man did. Good grief. That is what I call letting fear get the better of you.

Comments

That story about the bears

Written by srobarts on 8 November, 2006

That story about the bears being shot in Nelson is really sad, and I think a bit pathetic. Those bears probably could have been scared off with some vigorous banging of pots and pans. The problem is; they would probably come back, because they know that there is now an easy source of food there, meaning this family's garbage.

I get very upset when I hear about people who don't obey the rules and about not attracting bears and then the bears get shot by officials because they become a nuisance. The main problem here is the stupidity and laziness of Homo Sapiens not Ursus Americanus!

For more infomation about how to live in bear habitat please go to Bear Aware

The other thing to remember is; bears are not as dangerous as Hollywood would like you to believe. Yes they can do you a lot of harm, should they wish to, but the probably will not. I have encountered bears many times in the woods, and while they do without a doubt require respect, you should not fear them, just treat them with a healthy dose of respect

i certainly felt a swell of

Written by lincolnposte on 9 November, 2006

i certainly felt a swell of judgement toward the idiots..excuse me.. toward the people who leave their garbage outside in bear country and then wonder why the bears come and eat it. i guess it's just a bit harder to engage understanding (a quick remedy for the futile judgement position) when it's obvious these people really, truly, ought to know better. I mean come on, you live outside of Nelson - sounds pretty rural. Bears are rural.

Although speaking of non-rural bears, I happened to meet 3 (three) hungry black bears on windchester or windhaven or windsomething crescent in west vancouver two springs ago, while I was walking down the street. Guess what they were doing? Eating garbage.

It's just too early to have to get up to take your garbage out in the morning I guess, so these bears were just ripping through bags of trash and nibbling away on various items. Before I even saw them I was about 10 yards from two of them, I was on the sidewalk and they were trying to actually get into this house. They saw me, but didn't pay much attention. I thought about just keeping on walking up the street, but they really did look hungry and like they just woke up from winter, and that (my imagination suggested) they might just agree upon me as a snack.

Plus I wanted to hang out with them more, so I walked across the opposite side and knocked on a door, and ended up with this woman on her balcony for about an hour, watching the bears just below, grunting to one another while they devour garbage. I liked them.

Felt fascination and also sadness, as I know that these bears will not likely make it back to the wild. All because we insist on ignorantly baiting them with garbage, and then making it okay to kill them.

Sad sad sad. Hope we smarten up around garbage and bears.