When my grandchildren were
small, I started wearing cargo-pocket pants, so I could have room for toys.
Little toys, but large enough they couldn’t swallow them. Little lady bugs and
dinosaurs and butterflies. And bears. Especially bears. Pandas and brown and
black and polar. They were the most popular. Whenever one of the grands had a
bad day, I’d pull out a handful of bears. They could choose one. As any hunter
in the UP can tell you, getting a new bear just brightens up your day. I
eventually gave up on the dinosaurs and lady bugs. I still have some, but I
don’t carry them. Kids always choose bears.
Having grandkids, I spent
a lot of time where there were other little children. Often one of them was
having a bad day, too. So I pulled out the bears for them, also.
My grandchildren are old
enough now that it takes a new computer or new car to help them through a bad
day, but I still encounter a lot of little children, in waiting rooms and
restaurants and the mall. They think bears are good enough, so I still carry a
pocketful of bears.
Those bears sometimes
provide hilarity. We were going through customs in the Montreal airport and had
to empty our pockets onto a conveyor belt. I did so. The woman in line behind
me hid her mouth. She giggled. Then she chortled. Then she laughed out loud. She
pointed at the little plastic/rubber bears on the conveyor and gurgled, “I’m
sorry, but I just didn’t expect them.”
I never give a bear
directly to a child. Don’t want them to think it’s okay to take toys from
strangers. I hand it to the adult who is with them and say something, including
both of them, along the lines of: “Sometimes when a person is having a bad day,
a new bear makes things better.” So often, a little later, we hear laughter
from the place where tears were before.
The bears are primarily
for the kids, of course, but also for the adults. Sometimes a child is having a
bad day because of the adult who is with them. In handing a bear to the
adult, I’m saying: “You’re not alone. Others care about your efforts to take
care of this child, and sympathize. Also, others are watching how you
are caring for this child.” It is just a small attempt at child protection. It
works in a way that just saying, “I’m watching what you’re doing” never would.
That is why I am breaking
my vow of political ignorance. Being aware of what current politicians are
doing is very difficult for me. I do not suffer fools, dupes, idiots,
narcissists, or hypocrites gladly. Greed and nastiness take a toll on my soul. For
over a month now, I have ignored all political news. But I have decided that my
emotional health amounts to nothing compared to the future of my children and
grandchildren and all the little children for whom I carry bears.
It turns out that
ignorance isn’t very blissful after all. It is time for me, and I hope for you,
to get out the bears and reach them out to say, “We see what you are doing.”
I tweet as yooper1721.
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