Steve Brown's very insightful list of bear essentials brings to mind the wonderful song: Our Uncle Walter's not right in the head He's been that way all his life, my mother said Its not that he's violent or falls down the stairs Its just he goes waltzing, waltzing with bears He goes wa wa wa waltzing, waltzing with bears Raggy bears, shaggy bears, baggy bears too There's nothing on earth Uncle Walter won't do So he can go waltzing, wa wa wa waltzing He can go waltzing, waltzing with bears I went to his room in the middle of the night I tiptoed in and I turned on the light But to my surprise, he was nowhere in sight For my Uncle Walter goes waltzing at night CHORUS We gave Uncle Walter a new coat to wear When he came home it was covered with hair Lately I've noticed several new tears I think Uncle Walter's been waltzing with bears CHORUS We told Uncle Walter that he should be good Do all the things that we think he should But I know that he'd rather be out in the wood I'm afraid we might lose Uncle Walter for good CHORUS Well we begged and we pleaded, "Oh please won't you stay" Managed to keep him at home for a day But the bears all barged in and they took him away Now he's dancing with pandas, And he can't understand us And the bears all demand at least one waltz a day CHORUS There often is, I really believe, a lot to be learned from local supersition and tradition. I would even consider them to be "knowledge". The silly song is grounded in something like reality. There are thosewho have taken the time to get to know bears well and those same wise folks have been able to approach grizzly bears and be accepted by grizzly bears. Those of us who don't know the dance steps have to rely on other stuff, like guns, pepper spray, loud noises and other people's advice. But, like Uncle Walter, we'd rather be out in the wood, so we take the risk. Jim Tibensky *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
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