This is the last story this old Bear can write. It has been
quite a journey – re-remembering, learning and navigating stories. Bear was
privileged to carry the tongue and pen this far. Bear can’t wait to see what
the new ones will add to the Bear’s stories.
This journey has been
a lots of learning. What makes a good story? Is it a body leaned in close? A
voice turned whisper? A teaching that worms around your mind and heart for
years? Something that stays with you long after the fire is ash?
Well, over some years, this Bear has been able to learn and
grow with bear cubs. A long ago Grandmother had sewn a Sock Monkey. This Sock Monkey
lived an active life in our cave, keeping the dolly antics under control, wearing
many hats, fighting off inquisitive beagles and teasing jealous felines. One day, the whole bear family was out at the
market when our little cub gave a terrible cry. Following their paw, we turned
to find a nearby shop wall was covered in the skins of the sock monkeys! Worse,
the sock monkeys had been sewn into socks and hats for the two leggeds! Being
sold without any proper respects! Well now…many cubs tears fell for those lost
monkeys! Even today the diagram above is easy to find on the internet.
It shows how sock monkeys can be dissected and sewn together to cover the human
foot.
That little cub had
got a lot of knowledges eh?So we tried school.
It is what they tell us the cubs need. It didn’t work out so good, but we first
started wondering in kindergarten when we opened our cub’s little backpack to find
it full of books on agricultural economics, postmodern thinkers and philosophers!
That little cub consumed these texts with a passionate intensity. She read them
upside down, inside out and backwards – with the cold eyes of innocence. Somedays
Dolly was Arendt and Teddy was Eichmann. They usually met for tea and it was
all very polite. But watching our cub live out their
learnings gave this Data Bear confidence as some texts don’t wield to the
conventions of reading them right side up!
That little cub had got a lot of knowledges eh?
Little Bear loves the
shiny and sorts my treasures. Their eyes land on the pin with a Bear and Fish.
“Mama, why does that fish have a bear on its butt?”
Well, there’s nothing to add - that’s
the best story I ever learned from. Ho.
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