Bewildered: perplexed, confused, thoroughly lead astray (English origin, 17th c). Familiar? Or not? Denied? Frightened? Trying hard, but not getting anywhere? Bewildered – a state that’s uncomfortable, to say the least, for any species with a sensory nervous system. It’s hard to say which sentient beings have the capacity to think; we humans mostly equate thinking with words; however, thinking goes beyond words into richer realms. Not to say that accessing these realms is easy – not at all.
Stay with me for this next paragraph. You’ll see where I’m going shortly.
Think of hunters that use instinct, knowledge of environment, and getting inside the mind of their prey – how the prey may be thinking and feeling. Feeling is easy to understand – we all share both tactile and emotional sensory arrays that emerge from our brains and CNSs. But what does it mean to “get inside the mind of . . ."? Since there are no “words” (with rare exceptions that rely on imitation and pattern recognition – think higher apes and dolphins), what does it mean to feel and think as a non-verbal being does? I propose the following example:
- pattern recognition: as in being familiar with the lay of the land including trails, high and low topography, and so on,
- association: as in remembering that I was attacked at such and such a place – remembering itself, is a nonverbal way of thinking in images – association can accelerate into genuine trauma if the connection is emotionally disturbing enough
Many more modes come to mind – attention, intention, identification.
Now, I say all this to introduce you to the underlying essence of today’s poem. You'll immediately know that the piece is about a Bear. See if you can “get inside the skin” of this magnificent mammal. To assist in the effort, our Bear is allowed eight human words. Using these words supports understanding and may even feel comfortable as the imaginary words are our communication playground. Here’s the challenge: using only those ways of knowing above, try to feel what the Bear is feeling.
Background
I’ve been Dreaming Bear for as long as I can remember. I usually meet her in a Forest clearing. The temperature is about 70, clouds bustle along herded by a rambunctious wind. We sit face to face on our haunches enjoying one another’s company. Bear is a totem animal for me – one of three. (I’ve written poems about the other two, but this is my first about Bear.
I have seen two Bears this summer. Both looked gaunt and their gait was heavy as if carrying boulders on their backs. Like so many of our sentient being cousins, they are slowly starving, and they use up what energy they have searching for water.
Bear walks with me and sits near me, in particular, when I am ill – physically, mentally, or both. I have a simple necklace – a thick black string and an image of bear in stone suspended from it. I wear the necklace when I’m not feeling so well. It helps. I don’t know why. It doesn’t matter.
Exploration 1: Do animals visit you in your dreams? If so, what is the experience like? Does there seem to be a purpose for the visit?
Exploration 2: Define “bewildered” as you understand it. Recall an event or experience that left you feeling that way. What happened post-bewildered? How fresh is your recollection?
Exploration 3: Were you able to “get inside the skin” of the Bear? If not, did the poem fail to do its job, or did your imagination fail you?
1. No animals, or rarely, which is surprising since I'm afraid of dogs and bears.
ReplyDelete2. Be-in-wild. During a trip in San Francisco I went into a cave. It was completely dark and disorienting. I did not enjoy the intense fear. I caught a glimpse of light and made my way out. It was a beautiful day. I saw a ship passing through the Golden Gate. The memory is fresh. The fear is vague. I stay out of caves now unless there's a paid guide with spare batteries.
3. I don't think it's possible to know what it's like to be another animal, though JPS comes close.
1. Now that you mention it's rare for me to dream about animals or any one in particular. No dreams of big bucks, eagles, or wolves that I recall; no totem spirit animals. No lingering fears of animals; no animals that spring out from the darkness or leap at me from the grass. I did snatch a little garter snake that happened past my desk a day ago; how it got in I don't know, but I am happy I saw it before someone who would be afraid of/or repulsed by it would react negatively.
ReplyDelete2.) I live in 'be wild'. Many years ago now, I became disoriented on one of my farm fields I was burning at night; the smoke whirling about me and me turning my back to it to clear my eyes, when I saw a distant yard light and momentarily wondered where it had come from. It took maybe a minute or two for my brain to recalculate where I was in relationship to that neighbors yard light a mile away.
3.) I have literally been inside the skin of a bear or two, in ways you or other readers may not be comfortable, just as I have been inside the skin of deer, squirrels, cats, rabbits, muskrats, frogs, birds and other reptiles; knowing them may have been a stretch, however.
I did quite enjoy the poem "Bewildered" and envisioned it easily.
I expect bears this year will in fact be desperate for food as little of the wild health food market is open or well-stocked going into fall. Lock your doors, we are.