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Bears from the sky

I recently heard of a family in Alaska that was surprised at home when a bear fell through the sky light in the ceiling of their living room. The family hustled out of the house and later the bear wandered out too. No one was hurt.

I hate stories like this because they give me new things to be anxious about. Up until the moment I heard the story, I had no anxiety about bears tumbling from the sky and disrupting my domestic tranquility. But now, this ghastly scenario is on my radar.

I recognize that it is unlikely, especially since my home has no sky lights and I live in a relatively bear-free neighborhood. But now this ugly chain of events occupies a tiny space in my mind. I think I was better off not knowing.

This is why I try to limit my intake of news in all forms to a tiny trickle. If one is careless and listens to everything that happens in the world, it can produce an overwhelming flood of worries from astroids and rampaging apes to zero-gravity and run-away zambonis.

Naturally, there’s a danger in being completely ignorant about events. But let’s not forget that being clueless also pays some excellent dividends.

Do you have any unpleasant knowledge in your head that you wish you could jettison?

Don
March 6, 2019 

 

 

20 Responses

Jackie

June 01, 2019

My husband is the only person I have ever known who hit a fish while driving the RV.
We were innocently cruising up Highway 1 and an opsprey flew across the road in front of us. I think we were much closer than he expected and he released the lunch he was carrying home. Our windshield was impacted by about a 10 inch fish….unsure of the species.
Now anytime we drive near large birds I get very nervous!

Robin A Stone

June 01, 2019

You say you live in a relatively bear-free neighborhood, but in Atlanta, GA, they sometimes have bears on the interstate medians. For Atlanta to be a fairly large city, it has a lot of suburban areas in it. Keep an eye on your interstate medians, if you have them. For some reason bears like to congregate there.

Bob Eames

March 23, 2019

Spontaneous human combustion has long been a concern since it became an obsession of my nephew when he was a young lad…always concerned when I run a low grade fever or feel flush. And of course there are the swarms of spiders that invaded an unsuspecting town in India in 2012 and created havoc and actually killed two people with their bites…those things occasional make me anxious and I do hope to jettison all knowledge of them someday. And now I’m checking the specs on the new skylights we had put in our home two years ago to make sure they’ll support any of the wildlife we commonly see up here in Ada. Can’t be too careful!

Nunx

March 11, 2019

Great post. I now know what to do if a bear falls into my house. I feel prepared and confident. Yet, my deep fear is for the future health of other species and lifeforms as the number of human species grows before it plateaus. Like swarms…

Nunx

March 11, 2019

Great post. I now know what to do if a bear falls into my house. I feel prepared and confident. Yet, my deep fear is for the future health of other species and lifeforms as the number of human species grows before it plateaus. Like swarms…

Nunx

March 11, 2019

Great post. I now know what to do if a bear falls into my house. I feel prepared and confident. Yet, my deep fear is for the future health of other species and lifeforms as the number of human species grows before it plateaus

B. Hern

March 10, 2019

Killer bees. The first Africanized bees in the United States were discovered in 1985 in California. Then, in 1990, the first permanent Africanized bee colonies arrived in Texas from Mexico. Today, Africanized honey bees are found in southern California, southern Nevada, Arizona, Texas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, western Louisiana, southern Arkansas, and central and southern Florida.

These are dangerous stinging insects that have been known to chase people for more than a quarter of a mile once they get excited and aggressive. This is why they earned the nickname “killer bee.”

Random news reports say that they are moving into other states. I live in one of those “other” states and only hope that the Midwest winters will kill those killer bees (or at least reduce them to “mellow bees”) before they attack me and mine.

Z. M. Cael

March 10, 2019

Back in the ‘50s Wilton Manors Florida, when I was ten years old or so, I could lie on my stomach at the end of a little spit off Middle River and watch the tadpoles and fry dart in and out of grass growing in the crystal clear shallow water to avoid bigger fish that wanted to eat them. Now the news is full of red tide, blue-green algae and King-tide flooded streets. So now I pretty much live in fear of the next billion humans that are bound to join us and all the flush toilets they’re going to demand.

Ted M.

March 09, 2019

Oh, Great! After reading these comments, I’m now afraid of a mile wide bear, buzzing as this frozen beast falls through the air toward my house on Frog Lane.

Apisphilia

March 09, 2019

Bees swarming. The fear of 1000s of little bits of moneyy swirling away from my hives… and likely my fault
Or someone else’s lovely buzzing, ball of bees hanging plump and ready for a cozy home, but they are 100 ft up a tree.

Been on a news break since last year and so have plenty of room for new fears, thanks so very much for the bear story Don.

Wombat

March 08, 2019

Here in Australia we have long warned tourists and children of “drop bears” that can fall out of trees unexpectedly.

Louisa Tobias

March 08, 2019

Yes, Don, yes I do have a fear that I try to keep at bay. It’s silly, unlikely and probably elitist. I had a vision of being stuck in a waiting room for hours, days, with contemporary christian music playing, endlessly. No old time gospel music to ever free me the vanilla-sickly tunes. Then there’s those little green frogs that always jump AT me, confirming my belief that they want to commit suicide-by-human.

Chingachgook

March 08, 2019

The good news is, those of us with anxieties are therefore not psychopaths.

Tracey Stewart

March 08, 2019

“Our new president: Donald Trump!” Yup. Would love to jettison that.

Lovely post!

Amber

March 08, 2019

Yes! I know what radioactive Kool-Aid tastes like…

Joan C2

March 08, 2019

The UnderToad.
The giant toad that is lurking under those innocent looking, sparkling waves at the seashore.
You can’t see where it is lurking…

DD

March 08, 2019

For the past year, immersed in Arctic explorers frozen in a ghost ship, in ice bergs, scary polar bear monster that maims and sucks out their soul . Between AMC The Terror series, myth arctic ghost stories and Franklin Expedition research books. When I see your pirate ship plates , I imagine the ships in the land of huge ice bergs and crazy polar bears hiding to get starving Victorian era sailors trying to walk home in the frozen land.

Susan

March 08, 2019

I wish I could jettison my witnessing the horrors wrought since 1/20/2017.

Duchess of mirth

March 08, 2019

Thank you for asking Don, as I have been repressing this fear for a very long time. In the 1980’s a local newscaster told us “a mile-wide astronaut is headed our way” then cut to a commercial break. When the news returned, the man could barely contain his laughter as he corrected himself that it was an “asteroid”. Like your bear falling from the sky, I have had dire visions of an enormous astronaut spiraling out of orbit and causing an earthly calamity. Whew! I feel safer after talking about it!

B. Delaney

March 08, 2019

All political news from June of 2015 to today.

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