Friday, January 22, 2010

Grizzly Man

Today in Anthropology we watched the documentary "Grizzly Man." If you haven't seen it. You should. It's about this guy Timothy Treadwell who would go to this reserve in Alaska during the spring and summer months and live, unarmed, with the bears. He did this for 13 years without being harmed! And for the last few years he brought his video camera. But one summer he decided to stay later into the fall and was killed by an older aggressive bear that he was not use to (all of "his" bears had gone into hibernation.)

There was a lot of speculation that he's just a crazy man.

I don't think he was crazy.

He admitted that he'd had an alcohol problem and nothing was working to help him quit. A friend of his mentioned that he'd had a near fatal overdose.

At some point he found this reserve in Alaska and knew that his purpose was to "protect the bears." He quit drinking...

Now, although he never really "helped" the bears, and most people think he actually harmed them by getting them accustomed to people...I don't think that really matters. I mean, even thought he always said that he was there FOR the bears...I think he was there for himself.
and that's okay.

I think that some people are just not made for "society." And that's perfectly fine, especially because our American society is really... dirty and corrupt some(a lot of the)times. I feel like when people try to force themselves into it...that's when they face these "psychological" problems. I mean, I'm not saying that there is no such thing as chemical imbalances/mental disorders.
But, I don't think that putting Timothy in therapy and giving him some anti depressants would have helped him to feel okay with himself and in society.

I believe what Timothy had was passion. He LOVED the animals, as he stated many times. They were his passion, they were where he felt comfortable and accepted. And I feel like when someone becomes so invested in their passion, they start to lose sight of those "boundaries" or "social boundaries" (or restrictions or...some other adjective that explains what i'm going for), that they may have seen or had when they first were introduced to this passion. BUT THAT'S OKAY. That's also when they become different than all of us. They see things differently. They FEEL things differently. They react to things differently. And that's when, depending on the passion, everyone else thinks they are "crazy." And sometimes, the people with the passion, cant understand why everyone else DOESN'T GET IT!

hmm

yeah.

I found this poem.

"When you are inspired
by some great purpose,
some extraordinary project,
all your thoughts break their bonds;
your mind transcends limitations,
your consciousness expands
in every direction,
and you find yourself
in a new, great and wonderful world.
Dormant forces, faculties and talents
become alive,
and you discover yourself
to be a greater person by far
than you ever dreamed yourself to be.”

-Patanjali

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