Thursday, August 23, 2018

Not a beast 1

"I realized the bear was following us, I realized she wanted to eat us, and I realized that I was an animal."

The fact that we humans are animals should not be a revelation to anyone. But this man, writing about the time he was hunted by a bear, realized it in a new way when he became the prey.


photo: wp

"To be human today is to deny our animal nature . .  . I had always been an animal . . but it wasn’t until I was prey, my own fur standing on end . . that the meat-and-bone reality settled over me. I was smaller and slower than the bear. My claws were no match for hers. And almost every part of me was edible."

Yup, the "meat-and-bone reality" was that he instantly saw himself just as the bear did--smaller, slower, weaker, and edible. That's all the bear saw.

But the bear didn't see everything.

(cont'd tomorrow)

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