"Still in my mother’s maw, she carries me across any road to anytime but now. Here I am eating bear-caught salmon off a chipped plate with a fleur-de-lys that I won’t relinquish because of who gave it to me. I feel like the river’s skeleton picked clean."
Bearing witness to the gems that can be discovered on Substack when you are not seeking or expecting them.
Bear with axe, bear in flannel and tight denim made me laugh (out loud, mind you.) and then somehow two lines later I was fully gone over river skeletons and chipped plates and mothers carrying what they can...
I absolutely loved this, Matty! Probably my favorite of the SP picks so far. I shared it with an unusually long note because I was so jazzed about the basic ideas here — that “bear” (like all words), despite its many meanings, has no ultimate meaning beyond the variables that determine its use (a core concept in my discipline of psychology, behavior analysis, proposed by BF Skinner in the 1950s). Also loved how you brought it around to our lack of a static self, which is also related to the concept of meaning found in external environment in ways I can’t articulate in a comment here, but the connection was astute. And that section on self (which I can’t see now to quote) was absolutely brilliant. Loved the author interview, too. 👏 thanks for sharing this incredible piece with us!
"Still in my mother’s maw, she carries me across any road to anytime but now. Here I am eating bear-caught salmon off a chipped plate with a fleur-de-lys that I won’t relinquish because of who gave it to me. I feel like the river’s skeleton picked clean."
Bearing witness to the gems that can be discovered on Substack when you are not seeking or expecting them.
That's such a lovely way to put it, Betsy!
Bear with axe, bear in flannel and tight denim made me laugh (out loud, mind you.) and then somehow two lines later I was fully gone over river skeletons and chipped plates and mothers carrying what they can...
Thank you for reading!
This is amazing.
Thank you for reading!
Excellent
I absolutely loved this, Matty! Probably my favorite of the SP picks so far. I shared it with an unusually long note because I was so jazzed about the basic ideas here — that “bear” (like all words), despite its many meanings, has no ultimate meaning beyond the variables that determine its use (a core concept in my discipline of psychology, behavior analysis, proposed by BF Skinner in the 1950s). Also loved how you brought it around to our lack of a static self, which is also related to the concept of meaning found in external environment in ways I can’t articulate in a comment here, but the connection was astute. And that section on self (which I can’t see now to quote) was absolutely brilliant. Loved the author interview, too. 👏 thanks for sharing this incredible piece with us!
Very clever. I like these kinds of essays