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Humility

The Teachings of a Bear

By Scout CloudPublished 5 years ago 3 min read
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Tom McBride of Helena, Montana has been photographer of the year for National Geographic several times. Tom was the first person to photograph the mating act of the great golden eagles. He is well respected for his ability to live with and photograph the emotions of wild animals and birds of prey. Tom and I spent the day together on a mountain in Montana talking about the great teachers in our lives. This is the story Tom told me about his lesson in humility and vulnerability.

Tom wanted to photograph the emotions of the mountain grizzly bears, but it usually took months to get a pass to hike and camp on the mountain tops and rims. Tom struck out without the proper permits to find, live with, and photograph the grizzlies. He was three days into his hike when he realized that a ranger was tracking him. He knew the woman, and managed to avoid being caught for another day or two before he finally allowed her to catch up. He confessed his sin of traveling without permits, only to discover that she knew him well enough to know that he basically never got the proper permits. Her true purpose in tracking him was to tell him that grizzly bears had moved into his home at the base of the mountain. He called his home “The Crow’s Nest.” Apparently the bears caught his thought about wanting pictures of bears, so they came to his home for the photo shoot.

Tom raced down the mountain in half the time it took him to climb it and arrived back at the Crow’s Nest only to find a mother bear and two cubs having their way in his home. He waited until they left for the day, then carefully roped off the porch and kitchen area with string and tiny bells. His plan was to rig his cameras in the dining room with flood lighting enough to photograph the mama bear at night. The bells would alert him to her presence. That evening Tom waited with buckets of ice water, and his cameras. He wanted to photograph a look of “Surprise” on the face of a mama bear.

Somewhere in the early hours of the morning, Tom was awakened by the tinkling of bells and movement of bears. He crept into position. When the mama bear was close enough, Tom flipped on the lights and cameras, and flung a bucket of ice cold water directly into the face of the Mama bear. To Tom’s amazement, the mother bear did not flinch. Only feet away, she stared at and through him. The ice cold water ran down her face and onto her chest. She remained unmoving, staring. Expressionless. Slowly Tom began to back away from the bear. Surely she must have been thinking, “Tom, you wanted to photograph grizzles. So here I am. I came with my cubs to help you out, and you threw water in my face.” Rather than photographing “shock” or “surprise,” Tom learned his greatest lesson in humility. In his own words, Tom said, “Never have I felt so vulnerable, so humble.”

Gratefully, the bear and her cubs left and Tom restored order in his house. Let us stand humbly before the Giver of our Breath, knowing that at all times something sees us... sees through us and never flinches at our behavior.

Not long ago I stopped at a station to get gas and a cold drink. When I walked to the door, I noticed a can on the ground. I picked it up and tossed it in the trash can. An old woman behind me said, “Why’d you do that!” I wanted to give her my Earth Etiquette speech, but instead I said, “because I can,” I realized it’s the same reason I do most things: because I can. There are those who can’t bend over and pick up a can. It’s always best to do the right thing all the time. We are always being watched, if not by a grizzly bear, certainly by someone.

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