I was taking a nature walk in the mountains of Idaho during my summer vacation. It was a beautiful day—comfortable weather, bright sunshine, birds chirping, and somewhere in the distance I could hear a small creek happily bubbling along.
As the trail wound through the woods, I rounded a bend and spotted a bear digging into a rotten stump. He looked completely focused, but whatever he was looking for, he wasn’t finding it.
I stood perfectly still and watched. Then the bear stopped digging and slowly looked straight at me.
I tried to remember the advice I’d always heard. Was it, “Don’t look ’em straight in the eye,” or was it, “Look ’em straight in the eye—don’t show fear?”
I think I found a compromise.
I looked him straight in the eye… but I also showed a little fear when I started peeing down my leg.
“What’s the matter? Can’t find a Pic-A-Nik basket, Yogi? Is the Jellystone lunch program not cutting it?”
For just a moment, I could actually see my words being processed in the bear’s head. Then, like a bolt of lightning had struck him, his eyes widened, he let out an earth-shaking roar, and charged straight at me at full speed!
I turned and ran as fast as I could.
The funny thing is, I wasn’t thinking about the danger nearly as much as I was thinking about that old joke with the two guys running from a lion.
The first guy says, “We’ll never outrun this lion!”
The second guy replies, “I don’t have to outrun the lion… I only have to outrun you!”