Ursine Philosophy

A while back, I was asked what my “personal philosophy” was. My initial reaction was to say, “Go to hell, you saprophyte Nazi swine!”

But my mom hates when I talk back to her like that, so I refrained.

The question, however, is valid.

In college, I maintained a philosophy consistent with Ayn Rand’s writing: the greatest good for the greatest me. This generally involved long hours of alcoholic and nicotine induced meditation, and watching utopian and dystopian documentaries along the lines of Tombstone (and eye for an eye), Mortal Kombat (an eye for an eye), The Crow (an eye for an eye) and Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (revenge is bad). At the time this seemed preeminently logical.

But logic, we know, is the beginning of wisdom, not the end.

Other, more sanguine sources of deeper thought must be delved to arrive at a true basis for the living of life, and Forest Gump’s box of chocolates just won’t cut it, since the bum ate most of them before he even arrived at Jen-Nay’s doorstop.

Greedy bastard.

To that end, I have turned to the venerable sagacity of the three ultimate, though often over-looked, Ursine Philosophers: Winnie-the-Pooh, Smokey the Bear, and Baloo.

From Winnie-the-Pooh we learn that the simplest answer is often the right one. He's very Thoreau in his attitude, but without all the complex introspection and pedantic psycho-babble that is Thoreau: “Sometimes, if you stand on the bottom rail of a bridge and lean over to watch the river slipping slowly away beneath you, you will suddenly know everything there is to be known . . . Rivers know this: there is no hurry. We shall get there some day.” Socrates once stated, “The unexamined life is not worth living,” and Pooh has certainly taken the old Greek’s thought to heart. When confronted by Rabbit, who kindly quips, “Pooh, you haven’t any brain,” Pooh immediately, but humbly, responds, “I know.” He states in many different places that he is a “Bear of no Brain at All.” Pooh has learned enough to know that even all his combined knowledge of hefflelumps and his beloved hunny amounts to very little in the great scheme of things. But in recognizing this, he also recognized a fundamental understanding that many of us can miss altogether. We may not be able to “know” much of anything, but we can certainly feel plenty; friendship and love being the foremost to the Silly Ole Bear, “If you live to be 100, I hope I live to be 100 minus 1 day, so I never have to live without you.”

From Smokey the Bear we learn that if we want something done, then we must take the burden first upon ourselves, rather than shucking it to someone else. We also learn that being proactive is much, much better than being reactive. Finally, we learn that our actions can have vast reaching implications for others, so we must be cautious against carelessness. Smokey has never been a bear of many words. His mottos are simple, slogans, almost marketing jingles. And yet, the concept that, “Only you can prevent wildfires,” is as true today as it was in 1944. This can be cross-applied to many different aspects of our own lives, “Only you can prevent a seven-car pile up on the freeway by turning off the cell-phone, and using your damn blinker.” Rather than telling others what they should do, according to our own moral or socio-ethical models, we should turn within, and understand that we are responsible for our own independent destiny, but at the same time this world is what we choose to make of it. If we choose to drive really slow in the ultra-fast lane that has repercussions on everyone else. They are not necessarily forced to think evil, nasty and vile thoughts about us, our parents, and our sexual preferences, but the path is certainly much more brightly lit because of our choice.

Finally, from Baloo (not the Kipling creation, but the Disney derivative) we learn that happiness comes first from the basics:

Look for the bare necessities
The simple bare necessities
Forget about your worries and your strife
I mean the bare necessities,
Are Mother Nature's recipes
That bring the bare necessities of life
Wherever I wander
Wherever I roam
I couldn't be fonder
Of my big home

Baloo teaches that when we look to the complex for our joys, we often overlook that which is more easily and more readily available. We also learn that life shouldn't be taken nearly as seriously as most of us take it. If we have a roof over our heads for those rainy days, food in our stomachs when we’re hungry, a car as a means to go where we will, and defeat the plans of Captain Kirk, well, so much the better.

So that it then, the Ursine Philosophers. Much more, I’m sure, can be dug from their simple musings and meanderings than I have laid down here for you; but this is the key to what makes these simple bears such excellent role-models.