There are two kinds of people in this world.
We’ve all said it before. At least, I know I have. There are two kinds of people in the world. Those who do THIS, and those who DON’T.
The subject matter always changes. It goes from one thing to the next. Anything, really.
Those who are good at math, and those who aren’t.
Those who like chocolate, and those who don’t.
Those who use turn signals in cars, and those who don’t. Yadda.
We put ourselves into categories. Everyone in their place. But, this world is full of differences. It is the thing that makes us unique. One doesn’t have to be right and the other wrong. There is no better or no worse in many of these examples. Just diversity.
My story today of those who do and don’t revolves around camping. Just moments ago, I said there is no right or wrong way. But I have strong feelings about camping and all that lies therein.
First of all, it takes an awful lot of work to go camping. Admit it. One must amass a great deal of supplies, gadgets, and trickery, merely to go sleep on the hard ground, for even one night. I’d rather be snug in my own comfy bed. I’ll dream about the stars.
I get this dislike of camping, honestly. My Dad served in WWII on the European front. He spent a few years lying on the cold hard ground in Germany, France, and other places. He said to me several times growing up that he would never sleep on the ground again if he could help it. So I suppose I am a chip off the old block.
But today’s story of camping comes from Alaska, just a couple of days ago. There were three people: a woman named Shannon Stevens, her brother Erik, and the brother’s girlfriend.
They had taken snowmobiles into the wilderness to stay at his yurt, located about 20 miles northwest of Haines, in southeast Alaska. Let’s stop right there. A yurt, as I understand a yurt, is a circular tent of felt or skins on a collapsible framework, used by nomads in Mongolia, Siberia, and Turkey.
Is anyone else sensing a problem already? If I have to do as the nomads do, for a little bit of fun in my life, something has gone terribly wrong. Okay, okay, so they are staying in a yurt. The story continues.
There was an outhouse near the yurt in that backcountry. And the yurt-dwelling woman, Shannon Stevens, went to use it. She closed the outhouse door behind her, sat down on the hole, and in the next moment, she was bit. On the bum. By a bear.
Yes, attacked by a bear from below.
“I just shut the lid as fast as I could. I said, ‘There’s a bear down there, we got to get out of here now,'” she said.
Her brother heard her screaming and ran to the outhouse, which was about 150 feet away from the yurt. Of course, there she was, bleeding from the butt as a result of being bitten by a bear.
But the next part of the story shocks me even more. They went back to the yurt, got out the first aid kit, treated her butt, and stayed the night there. In that yurt. With the bear, still in the outhouse. And. I am guessing. If the bear got IN, he could probably get OUT.
Sure enough. The next morning, they found bear tracks all over the property, but the bear had apparently left the area. Shannon Stevens must have tasted funny, is all I can say. Because last time I checked, a yurt is no match for a bear. He didn’t go back for more.
A couple of thoughts stayed with me after this story.
The consequences could have been much worse.
I don’t have any bears in my nice warm bathroom at home.
And. There are two kinds of people in this world.
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“Monsters exist, but they are too few in number to be truly dangerous. More dangerous are the common men, the functionaries ready to believe and to act without asking questions.”
― Primo Levi
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“You see, there are no pretty pink flowers in the woods at night.”
― J.K. Franko, Eye for Eye
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“Camping is nature’s way of promoting the motel business.”
― Dave Barry
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There are two kinds of people in this world.
