Skip to main content

Making Life Bearable


 

It’s National Teddy Bear Day!

So far I haven’t been able to find the exact history of how the day was created but there’s plenty about the origin of teddy bears.  I wonder if enough digging would reveal that National Teddy Bear Day came about due to the efforts of companies like Steiff, Gund, or FAO Schwartz. They’d certainly have a vested interest in perpetuating a love of all things Teddy.

There was a time when one’s love of the stuffed, plush companions of childhood was expected to fade and diminish in adulthood. I’m not sure that’s as true today. It certainly isn’t for me. This is Buddy. He’s appeared in the blog before.


Buddy was a half-birthday gift from my daughter when she was very young and he became an instant member of the family. He has a voice, a personality, and he has even had several outfits over the years. In this picture you see Buddy keeping me company on a really rough day. He was kind enough to accompany  me to the (gone but not forgotten) Second Chance Saloon in Oakland Mills.

That’s not his beer. He doesn’t drink.

Aside from Buddy, my favorite bears are Les nounours des gobelins. You can read about how they came to be in this delightful article in “Bonjour Paris: the Insider’s Guide.”

Les Nounors des Gobelins: Giant Teddy Bears Take Over the Streets in Paris, Roni Beth Tower, October 2019

Philippe, the creative proprietor of the bookstore at 25 avenue des Gobelins, decided the quartier could use some additional natural cheerfulness. He was inspired when his own teddybear, a large one he called “Gorille”, asked for his own “doudou” (a soft, fuzzy attachment object); he was convinced everyone can benefit from having cuddly friends. After he located a teddy bear for Gorille, he found three more giant bears, triplets he was certain, and brought them all home for companionship to Gorille. 

Les nounours have been spotted behind the wheel of sporty cars, looking out windows of ancient Paris buildings, gazing longingly in shop windows, ordering at sidewalk cafés, and even participating in an all-nounours wedding celebration. I’m not kidding.


Photo from Les nounours des gobelins, Facebook


Nounours wore masks during the height of the pandemic. They turned up promptly to get vaccinated. They were a perfect antidote to the isolation of staying at home to avoid illness. 

Why? Perhaps that inborn urge to engage in imaginary play never goes away for a lot of us. As a life-long early childhood educator, I think that’s a good thing. Dramatic play can take many forms. Some people enjoy cosplay and historic reenactment. Some participate in amateur theatrics. Some exercise those innately creative parts of themselves in telling wonderful bedtime stories to their children.

I believe that imagination and play are a part of being human.

Cuddling a teddy bear is, at its most basic, a comforting sensory experience that can give a feeling of a emotional reassurance. That, right there, is enough to celebrate them today. But they can also be companions - - and who knows? even instigators - - during life’s adventures and celebrations. Almost everything is more fun with a teddy bear.

And on sad days there is no one better.

Posted yesterday on the occasion of the death Queen Elizabeth II:

The caption reads, “Mes sincères condoléances 🥲🥲🥲”



Comments are open today for all things Teddy. 


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Teacher Gifts

Today is the last day of school before the Winter Break. It’s a good time to remember the far-reaching nature of our public school system. You may not have children. You may have sent your children to independent schools. It matters not. You will be impacted one way or another. Yesterday I read a long thread on Facebook about several waves of illness in the schools right now. There’s influenza A and norovirus, I believe. And of course there’s COVID. Apparently in some individual schools the rate of illness is high enough for school admin to notify parents.  When I was little the acceptable holiday gift for a teacher was one of those lovely floral handkerchief squares. (I don’t know what it was for male teachers. They were rare in my elementary years.) These days the range of teacher gifts is wider and I have fond memories of Target gift cards which I have written about before. I think it’s safe to say that giving one’s teacher Influenza, norovirus, or COVID is not the ideal holiday...
1 comment
Read more

F ³: We Are Not Entitled

  A college student went missing. His family and friends were distraught. The community was encouraged to be on the lookout and spread the word.  Days passed.  They must have been agonizing days for those who cared about the missing student. Thoughts that foul play had been involved cannot have been far from their thoughts.  Then, at last, the student was found. Alive. The news was shared with the public.  So. Much. Relief. A family had been reunited with their child. Even though we know that life is complicated, I think it is okay to accept this as a happy ending and leave it at that.  But the world of social media says no. For every expression of joy at the news came questions and even judgement. It became clear to me that some folks felt entitled to an explanation. They wanted the backstory. It’s as though they felt that, by enlisting the help of the public on social media, the authorities now owed them all the details. Television dramas often weave curr...
2 comments
Read more

Separate and Unequal

  Remember “Separate but equal”? Remember how that really meant that Black schools languished in  broken-down buildings without adequate heat or toilet facilities, with cast-off, ragged learning materials, underfunded and largely ignored? The Supreme Court struck that down in 1954. The evidence was clear that separate was not equal. Plessy v Ferguson had led to - - no, endorsed - - deeply unequal schooling and opportunities. We tend to think of Brown v Board as being purely about racial integration. It was not.  It was about the logical consequences of segregation. And they were not, not, not equal. The ruling in 1954 didn’t transform public education for non-whites into a land of milk and honey by any means. But it articulated some essential truths in a way that made including everyone a legal precedent which could be relied upon and built upon. It was better than what came before it but it rested upon unsteady ground. It did not necessarily change the hearts or minds ...
1 comment
Read more