LAURA CARPINI

QUESTIONS & ANSWERS

 

 

 

1. Describe the relationship between the woman and the grizzly.  She refers to him as her teacher, and there are times in the story when he seems all knowing.  Yet at other times their relationship takes on a playful, almost erotic quality.  Is the bear her teacher, her lover, a divine force of nature, or a combination of all three?

 

The woman is definitely fascinated by the bear from the beginning.  She’s into the bear physically – curious about the texture of his mane, and the large size of him as compared to herself.  She begins to visualize him quite early in the story as a handsome, Blackfoot warrior, and there are times when she physically hugs him or allows him to hold her.

 

But the depth of her relationship with him ultimately transcends the physical.  She’s out of her element in the forest, and relies on the bear primarily as her guide.  He is a powerful presence, and initially she must overcome her fear to commune with him at all.  There’s this point in the story where she could go both ways – either she can flow with what’s happening and relinquish her need to control, or she can go back to Los Angeles and just keep her interactions with the bear as a memory.  She’s on the edge, and she makes a conscious choice to connect with the bear on a mental, intimate level.  She chooses to be with him, even though he frightens her, and that’s when he’s able to teach her, and become her lover in the purest sense of the word.

 

 

2. What is it about camping or being in nature that tends to bring an individual closer to the truth of who they are?   Why do you think such retreats are important to a person’s development?

 

Places in nature – retreats- even within the confines of a city are extremely important for triggering the vital, human, living impulse of what is real.  It’s important for every individual to find their own place of sanctuary- even if they live in a large busy city- even if that spot is a corner of a shared apartment.  But it’s easier, obviously, to feel what’s happening, what really matters when surrounded, inundated by the natural world.

 

3. During her time camping, the bear gives the woman seven lessons for living her life.  He calls them precepts.  What exactly are the seven precepts and how do they change the woman?

 

The precepts aren’t exactly lessons because they already exist.  They are facts about life, about the way things are that the woman in the story doesn’t realize until she goes into the forest to observe nature and herself in a natural environment.  The bear simply helps her to realize each precept one by one: 1. All her needs will be met; 2. Time is an illusion; 3. No fear; 4. Release into love; 5. Co-create a loving reality; 6. Connect energy lines to heal; and 7. Vibrate with Joy. 

 

As she uncovers those natural truths about nature, she goes through a psychological journey, so that by the end of the experience she is clear about herself.  There’s this reflective element to what she realizes; as she becomes more attuned to her environment she becomes more aware of herself as well and vice versa.

 

4.  She has a tough time camping at first.  It seems like the weather, the whole forest is out to get her in the beginning.  Why did you set up the story like that?

 

Originally I considered making her an experienced camper, a woman who could just head out there and tackle all her problems, set up her tent, cook food, without any problems.  But then I realized that wasn’t real.  Expert campers do exist, but for most of us in big cities at least, going into the woods alone is a challenge.  The main part of the woman’s challenge though is psychological.  She sees her environment as hostile, when really she’s surrounded by perfection. 

 

5.  Would it be correct to say that her biggest struggle is internal?

 

Yes.  She sees her surroundings as bleak and annoying originally, because that is how she perceives herself.  But, fortunately, the reality is that she’s a loving person, and once she realizes that, she’s able to “re-create” the forest in her mind as it truly is also.

 

6.  In the beginning of the story the woman thinks she is alone, but by the end she is surrounded by animals and eventually lots of other people.  Is the woman actually alone in the beginning?

 

Mentally she’s isolated herself.  She’s irritated with everyone else when the story opens.  She’s isolates herself by choice, and she’s convinced she should be isolated, that no one else could possibly understand her which is an error.

 

 So when she sits in her tent at night and hears animal noises: deer brushing her tent, an owl, and later a coyote- she becomes very fearful.  Everything, even the bear who will be her savior is perceived as a threat, and that’s humorous.  The whole concept of “getting away from it all” is a fallacy because what actually happens when she goes out there into nature is she realizes it’s impossible to isolate herself from life.  Even in the direst of situations there is always something else with her, by virtue of the fact that she is alive, and knowing that something else is there becomes very empowering for the woman.

 

7. What exactly is that “something?”  Are you referring to God?

 

The word “God” has loaded connotations for lots of people, so I hesitate to use it.  It would be appropriate to say however, that the woman in the story hooks into something real and tangible – Truth with a capital “T,” when she ventures out of her comfort zone.  The divinity she finds in Truth, and she discovers that Truth is always with her.  No one can avoid Truth and in the end that reality becomes her salvation.

 

She experiences what is real on a concrete, physical level- it’s a gut level response to what she can observe once she lets go of her fear.  That awareness leads her to the discovery that her being is connected to everything else.  But it’s important for her to realize there’s nothing intellectual or calculated about it.  Her sense of the overriding, all inclusiveness of her being is something she must discover on a visceral level.  Once it happens she just knows, and there’s nothing to argue about or discuss any more.

 

8.  Would you call your story a yoga book, or a spiritual story or what?   How would you classify it?

 

One fun aspect of this story is that it defies genre categorization.  I like that about it.  Obviously I’ve been highly influenced by my yoga practice.  I love the physical high of asana, but I don’t refer to any specific physical postures in the story itself. 

The yoga that goes on for the protagonist is mental.  She discovers the ecumenical unity of all things by the end of her adventure, and in that sense she is “doing” yoga without tackling any physical posture.  What she discovers is the depth of her own nature- this equanimity that is modeled to her by the grizzly bear.

 

9. You’ve written in first person and chosen to not give the woman a name.  Is the protagonist in the story you?

 

I did camp three summers for a week in a tent at Feathered Pipe Ranch in Montana.  I did keep a journal during that time, and I did write down seven precepts I noticed about what was going on around me.  

 

But as far as any encounter with a grizzly bear – no, that never happened.  I was also already settled in my life as far as marriage and children are concerned by the time I wrote the story; I deliberately made the woman young, in her mid-twenties, at an innocent, pivotal point in her life.  She isn’t sure what to do or who she is at all because people that age are usually not aware of all that yet.  At the same time, your mid-twenties is the point where you’ve got to make lots of major life choices, and it can be tough when you’re still unaware of the big picture.  Of course, anyone who embarks on that kind of inner journey, whether they be fifteen or ninety-five is going to have to take on an air of innocence to progress.  There has to be a willingness to drop past conditioning.

 

10. Does the heroine in the story find happiness in the end?

 

Part of the point is her discovery that it’s not happiness she really wants, but joy.  And finding that joy becomes a process she must repeat again and again.