Bears, Bees and honey

ABC Wednesday
July 19th, 2017
The Letter is B for Bears, Bees and honey

When considering the subject of

Bears, Bees and honey

do we ever think of the morals involved?

Well, probably not,

but Aesop did

at least he considered the consequences of the whole affair

When the Bear came across the log filled with honey

and snooped around, thinking to fill his tummy

a single bee came out to protect the swarm, 

and stung the bear.

In a great rage the bear swapped the log with his huge claws

determined to destroy the nest of bees...

but a swarm of bees flew out and stung the bear

from head to heels

and the bear saved himself by diving into the nearest pond.

The moral of Aesops story?

"Better to bear a single injury in silence than

to bring about a thousand by

reacting in anger".

Probably Winnie the Pooh

ate his stolen honey with delight and serenity

but Mary Oliver tells a story in her poem

Black Bear in the Orchard

that delves a little further 

into the consequences and the morality

of the whole thing

Black Bear in the Orchard

It was a long winter.

But the bees were mostly awake

in their perfect house,

the workers whirling their wings

to make heat.

Then the bear woke,

too hungry not to remember

where the orchard was,

and the hives.

He was not a picklock,

He was a sledge that leaned

into their front wall and came out

the other side.

What could the bees do?

Their stings were as nothing.

They had planned everything sufficiently

except for this: catastrophe

They slumped under the bear's breath,

They vanished into the curl of his tongue.

Some had just enough time

to think of how it might have been -

the cold easing,

the smell of leaves and flowers

floating in,

then the scouts going out,

then their coming back, and their dancing -

nothing different

but what happens in our own village.

What pity for the tiny souls

who are so hopeful, and work so diligently

until time brings, as it does, the slap and the claw.

Someday of course, the bear himself

will become a bee, a honey bee, in the general mixing.

Nature, under her long green hair,

has such unbendable rules,

and a bee is not a powerful thing, even

when there are many,

as people, in a town or a village,

And what, moreover, is catastrophe?\

Is it the sharp sword of God,

or just some other wild body, loving its life?

Not caring a whit, black bear

blinks his horrible, beautiful eyes,

slicks his teeth with his fat and happy tongue,

and saunters on.

Mary Oliver

Pause for thought......

More Bs here at ABC Wednesday

with thanks to Melody and all those,

busy as bees, who assist her.