Bear goes East - We have always been modern[1]
Sometimes the Grandmothers send us to journey. Maybe for
meditation. Maybe with message. Maybe with mission. Since we were now stained
with the unknown symbols – the Grandmothers sent us to gain the knowledge of
the markings. They instructed us to go towards the rising sun until we found
answers. So every day we journeyed. Oh,
the stories we could tell of those times…. those we met, folks who fed us, those
we who encouraged us, who waved us off as we headed further East. We learned
many things in those days, but not the knowledge of the symbols, so we
continues east until we ran out of land.
Ever spent time with a sea-sick bear? Imagine it for a
moment… So unsurprisingly we made few friends during those days. Weak and missing home, we were ready to give
up the journey until a kindly Doctor of medicines visited furside. As he showed
us the medicines he had to calm our stomach, we noticed the container had the
same kind of symbols that stained our fur. So we came to understand that these
were the symbols of great medicine!
In the following days, renewed to the mission and in health we
asked the Doctor if he could teach us the magic of these symbols. The Doctor said
there was no need for a bear to read and write. He told us that it wasn’t
natural and that there wasn’t even any need, as we were a child of the “Great
Mother”. He told us that this Great
Mother would ensure our safety. But the Doctor was eventually persuaded to
share some magics after he found us learning letters and playing number games
with the sailors who had been very glad to share knowledges for tobacco.
After crossing the big waters we arrived at “civilization”
where all the great thoughts, beautiful things and best ways were kept. My
companions were very proud to show off all their plunder and their ways. As the
Grandmothers taught, we listened, we watched and we learned. They declared,
even as I explained this was not truth, that we were surely a prince of our
peoples. So they dressed us in silks, showed us off to their best and declared
their peoples as great and eternally favored by the gods. The “Great Mother”
kept me close in those days and we made a friendship with a teller of stories
who played with the symbol letters to create great magics. Folks would come
from all around to see these stories performed. I learned that he even had a
special house for the telling of his stories, so great was his power.
We prepared carefully for the great gathering in our finest Bear
regalia excited to see more of this civilization. But instead of joining the
crowds of people on the floor, we were whisked to a high perch over the people.
But the people of the floor rightly saw that we were apart and called for us to
join them “Bear, Bear” they chanted, even as the play began. They were so loud
that our friend eventually invited us to be seated on the stage so the people
could watch a Bear watch the story. A chair was set on stage for us and the
young man in black returned with his skull to continue his promise of vengeance
to his father now passed to the spirit world.
The story is dizzying in color, intrigue and emotion. A true
story for the ages. As the telling ends, the young Hamlet, vengeance fulfilled,
walks the rainbow bridge as a warrior. His last request, that his story be shared.
With the crowd below us, we stand to honor this retelling. Then as the crowd
continues to clap and stamp their feet, the story teller himself came out to
bow. Then our friend invited us to join him center stage. We were a little
scared, but honored too, that a man of such magics over letters acknowledged
us. Imagine it for a moment…
During my stay with the Great Mother, we spent much time
with man who knew these magics and learned all we could with them. Then one
night, we were visited by the Grandmothers in the dream time and we understood
that our time across the waters was at an end. As we prepared to retrace our
journey – now towards the west, our new friends gifted us with many nice things, papers
of magic and of course – medicines for our time on the seas. No more sea sick
bears! Our last goodbye was to the great teller of tales. We thought hard about
what we could gift this great teacher who showed how those letters could be
used to tell the most heart breaking of stories, could be used to make us laugh
and how they could help us tell truths that might be hard to hear. As we were
brothers through our friendship we gifted him with the spirit name that came to
us in the dreamtime. We spoke this name before them in our language and his,
“Exit pursued by a bear.” [2]
Imagine it for a moment…
And so it was that Data Bear learned the meaning of those
symbols on their fur, came to travel across the big waters and became brother
with a holder of great story telling magics. Ho!
