Teddy bears seem to personify whimsy. They are benevolent creatures who just exude vulnerability and fuzzy love. They stare out at the world through those glossy, black button eyes, revealing nothing and everything all at once……… I’m pretty sure they have souls............
I kind of have a thing for teddy bears. I’ve been known to go through periods of teddy bear acquisition, in which I add unnecessary ones to my stable the way others acquire guitars or power tools. Some of my bears live freely, uncaged, in my house, and they’re pretty quiet. They don’t really run amok or anything. But I’m sad to say that not all of them are this lucky. I have some other teddy bears who have been packed away in a plastic bin marked “TEDDY BEARS” for years. Oh, the guilt I carry around with me. I can only imagine the conversations that are going on inside that bin.
Perhaps this borders on teddy bear abuse, but what am I supposed to do – put them all out on display? I don’t have room in my life for all those bears – all at one time. I don’t want to deal with them all, so I keep some of them in that plastic bin. What does it mean when we pack our teddy bears away in a box -- when we put away our whimsy, our vulnerability, our fuzzy love? If I don’t put all my bears out there, am I holding back something important?
I don’t know but I think I’ve hit upon a new favorite idiom:
“Lay all your teddy bears on the table.”
“She decided it was best to come clean and lay all of her teddy bears out on the table.”
“All right, let’s lay all our teddy bears on the table and discuss this matter.”
“He brought no teddy bears to the table.”
“But Mary treasured up all of these teddy bears in her bin, and pondered them in her heart…..”
Oops! Sorry, I got carried away for a second there.
Be brave.
Bring it.
Bring all your teddy bears to the table.
What’s the worst that can happen?
Some bears I know...........
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| Bear-on-stairs |
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| Navy Bear |
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| KU Bear - someone has taken his pants |
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Bear-in-car |
This is great!! My favorites are the Overloved Bear and the Bear-on-Stairs. But why is the Bear-in-car purple? What in god's name happened to that poor bear's pants? My one disappointment with this post was I expected MORE BEARS! You are holding out on us! I demand more bears. C'mon, Laura, Bear your soul!
ReplyDeletewell, you may know that those 2 faves of yours are actually not my bears. they belong to 2 people very close to me, and i keep their bears here so that they will be safe and not come to any harm. i do have a few more but they are packed away! how would i know why the bear-in-car is purple? i am not God, you know. i am not the Great Bear Creator. as for the pants....sigh...someone took his pants off and now they are missing. you know how kids are.
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