Adventures of the Blue-eyed Bear

Bear Food for Thought

What is the meaning of the protruding tongue? It is common in the Native Tlingit style of bear imagery. Below is the blue-eyed bear version of the Native bear as portrayed by Alaskan artist Julie Thompson.

There are many cultural meanings to the protruding tongue from just plain silliness to the rude or erotic in western culture. For the Maori People of New Zealand the gesture reflects strength and ferocity as part of their war chant. In Tibet it functions as a greeting and a sign of respect. The gesture is definitely an attention grabbing nonverbal display. A bear’s open maw can be intimidating but with no teeth showing the Bear suggests it can be a gesture of imparting wisdom.

Last Night While I Was Sleeping. A Poem by Antonio Machado (translated by Willis Barnstone and Coleman Barks). Illustrated by the Blue-eyed Bear as perspective on her spiritual journey.

Last night while I was sleeping
I dreamt -blessed illusion-
a fountain flowed inside my heart.
Water, tell me by what hidden channel you came to me
with a spring of new life
I never drank?

Last night while I was sleeping
I dreamt -blessed illusion-
I had a beehive inside my heart,
and from my old failures
the golden bees
were contriving white combs 
and sweet honey.

Last night while I was sleeping
I dreamt -blessed illusion-
a fiery sun glowed inside my heart.
It was fire, giving off heat
from a red hearth.
It was the sun throwing out light
and made me weep.

Last night while I was sleeping
I dreamed -blessed illusion-
that it was God I held
inside my heart.

The Blue-eyed Bear looks to her Arctic friends for help finding a new home.

The Arctic is melting! So, in her search for a new home the Blue-eyed bear is looking to her Arctic friends for a possible solution. She asks the Arctic Tern, who travels 22,000 miles a year round trip from arctic to antarctic, for their opinion of home. The Tern says Turn south!

The Blue-eyed Bear then goes to fine her friends the Polar Bees! They are bumble bees (Bombus polaris) who live in underground nests were they stash a bit of honey in the short arctic summer. Although the bee’s share their sisterhood with the BE Bear they won’t share their home or honey and the BE Bear must move on!