Exhibit A
Bear Witness
A few weeks ago I was quietly enjoying an early Saturday morning cup of tea in my living room while Zoe, one of my dogs, was perched in the window guarding the house. Suddenly she sounded the alarm, and although I'm used to her barking at squirrels and cats, this was different — almost as if she was saying, "OMG! WTF is that?!"
Turns out, she was.
When I got up to assess the situation, I saw a black bear casually strolling across my front yard. I think those exact words slipped out my mouth.
That was a bit out of character for me, and might be why Bailey, my other dog, came flying into the room like Underdog. He immediately joined the barkfest, which summoned the queen of the house to the window. When she arrived — half dressed with a full attitude because the three household peasants had just disturbed her beauty sleep — she dropped an F bomb too.
Astonished, we both pulled out our cell phones and recorded Bob the Bear foraging for food like he was an exhibit at the zoo. Minutes after he disappeared down the street, a neighbor walked by with his dog and I yelled out the window, "Hey, be careful! There's a bear out there!" To which he stated, "Yeah, I saw him last week down by the college."
Wait, what?! Bob's been in town all week and no one told us! Our neighborhood watch is kinda sus!
We spent the next 45 minutes reporting Bob's cameo to anyone we thought would be just as alarmed. We both sent pics and videos to out-of-state family members, then we called Animal Control to ask for guidance. After being rerouted three times, they were like, "Yeah, you're good. He's probably more afraid of you than you of him."
Ha! I doubt that!
I didn't leave the comfort and safety of my house for another 24 hours. I knew Bob was long gone well before then — probably home studying for his Humanology final exam — but this was the first bear I'd ever seen in public. The only other one I’d seen was at the zoo, and I don't even like zoos because I don't like seeing animals in captivity.
And yes, I see the irony of the fact that I own two dogs.
This incident left me feeling like I was at the county zoo. Only I was the one behind the glass. Bob, on the other hand, was free to move about the county.
Mind the Glass
We're all behind the glass in some kind of enclosure — and we even built them ourselves. These self-built enclosures become comfortable because the uncertainty on the other side is handled for us.
The salary always lands on the 15th whether the month was brilliant or a dumpster fire because someone upstream absorbed the uncertainty. We're comfortable. Then we see someone from our old team who went solo post a pic on LinkedIn. They're enjoying a Tuesday-morning hike with a caption like, "Just closed my biggest client!", but that post is followed by three weeks of silence. We don't know if we should envy the Tuesday or pity the silence.
Or maybe we already left and somewhere in year two we picked up one steady client who covers the bills. When we recognize that we haven't pitched anything new in forever, we slowly realize we got out of the enclosure and quietly built a smaller one with better lighting. Then we see someone post on LinkedIn about how they just turned down the safe retainer to chase the thing with no floor under it and we don't know if that's a brave or reckless thing.
Same glass. New building.
In both we're pressing our faces to the glass watching the "free" creature on the other side. We just can't tell if it's really free.
Question of the Week
Who's on the other side of your glass — and are you sure which one of you is free?
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