4/14/16
I spent the first half of my life in Alaska, where bears were a real part of life, and I spent last week immersed in that environment. I can tell you from personal experience when a bear crosses your path, you can tell if he just wants to get passed you, or if he is truly out to get you. Just like when you meet a strange dog. Most of the time he doesn’t really care about you, is just curious, or just wants you out of his space. You slowly back away until you have put enough space between you, that you can each continue your journey (though yours will be in a slightly different direction). But you also do not enter the woods without a rifle.
I spent the first half of my life in Alaska, where bears were a real part of life, and I spent last week immersed in that environment. I can tell you from personal experience when a bear crosses your path, you can tell if he just wants to get passed you, or if he is truly out to get you. Just like when you meet a strange dog. Most of the time he doesn’t really care about you, is just curious, or just wants you out of his space. You slowly back away until you have put enough space between you, that you can each continue your journey (though yours will be in a slightly different direction). But you also do not enter the woods without a rifle.
I
got into a very deep discussion with my brother about politics, and
his views were very different from mine. He would like to do away
with all social services for low income as well as funding for
education, his belief is we should all take care of ourselves. I told
him as long as we are imagining, I would like to live in a world
without the military. I would like it to be obsolete. My well-intentioned, loving brother was absolutely shocked by me not wanting
a military. “If a group of bad men entered your village, and your
neighbors rallied together and knocked on your door and said ‘Come
on! There are bad people coming that we need to stop!’ wouldn’t
you get your gun?” This reminded me so much of Kingsolver’s Small
Wonder.
I
asked my brother, “What did these bad people do? Are they actively
hurting someone? Am I just supposed to take your word that they are
bad? When was talking with them taken off the table? Is this not how
the witch trials started?”
My
brother responded, “If a bear entered your home you would shoot it,
right?”
I
reminded my brother that you can tell if a bear is in attack mode. If
a bear gets in, you open the doors and wait for it to leave. It may
do some damage but that can be repaired. Just like when Kingsolver’s
parents say “A house can burn down, but the land will always be
there”
I could not kill out of fear of the unknown. I could defend myself
and my loved ones if in true danger. I could kill for food. But I
would not want to look in a mirror after killing based on territory
or rumors.
My
kind-hearted brother is a great father, a loving husband, helps his
neighbors. And is also islamophobic, believing people of a different religion/ethnicity/nationality/orientation are immoral and unwelcome. Personally, “I
am losing faith in such a simple thing as despising an enemy with
unequivocal righteousness.”
And I do understand the mothers who love the bombers, but not their
actions.
By
Sunday, I remembered why I had left Alaska. Salman Rushdie put the
idea so eloquently. His idea of the journey being the destination. I
am a traveler, and every piece of the world I experience, every new
person I meet – they are a part of the whole. They are a part of
me. They are a part of God. I know I would not have found that had I
stayed in the same town, the same house, the same job. My soul craved
the search for more. And I have discovered the search is what I
craved. There is no destination that with ease my hunger. It is the
path, the adventure, that I crave.
References
Kingsolver, B. (2002). Small Wonder. Perennial.
Rushdie, S. (2002). Step Across This Line. New Haven: Yale.