METAL BARS OR MENTAL BARS...

There is a story that comes from Russia of the BEAR THAT WAS FOREVER TRAPPED.

There had been a great fire that burned miles of forest in Russia. Much of the wild life

had been destroyed.

There was a truck traveling along the edges of the destruction and a man saw a tiny

little brown bear. They stopped the truck and watched the BEAR CUB. Up in the woods

the men saw the MOTHER BEAR was burned to death. The BABY BEAR CUB was so hungry.

The men stopped at a local store and purchased milk and a bottle and they hand fed the

CUB. The cub would fit in the man's hand. He carried the CUB in his pocket to keep it warm.

The cub was soon accustomed to it's new life.

Everyone loved the tiny little bear. It grew and grew. One day the owner saw he could no

longer care for the BEAR and a man in a bar offered to buy the BEAR. The man built a

CAGE OUT OF WOOD WITH METAL BARS. THE CAGE WAS 8 FEET BY 10 FEET.

The little bear would walk back and forth and the man sold tickets to watch the little bear

pace back and forth. Soon the crowd mocked and was mean to the bear as he paced

8 feet by 10. They burned the bear with cigarettes. They threw sharp objects in the cage.

The bear showed signs of the extreme abuse. But it continued to pace 8 by 10. 8 by 10.

One day a business man from Germany, saw the bear and how it was being abused

and the business man said: PLEASE SELL this beautiful bear to me? So soon the bear

was loaded in the 8 by 10 steel cage into the back of a truck and made its way to a new

home in a small zoo in Germany.

People came to see this caged bear as he paced 8 by 10. The bear was treated better

and was given healthy food. Soon the bear had a new place prepared to live in the small

zoo. The bear was released into the new area. It was small but very nice. The bear

had been trapped in the 8 by 10 cage so many years that when the new area was opened

to him, he was forced out of the only home he could remember into his new home. The

bear just paced back and forth, 8 steps, then 10 steps. Day after day the bear paced his

8 by 10 paces.

One day a millionaire from the USA was at the zoo and saw this strange behavior.

The zoo keeper explained the bear lived many years in an 8 by 10 cage and that he seemed

to have adapted to his life in the cage and they could not make the huge bear break

his habitual behavior.

The millionaire was concerned and made an offer to buy the bear. So the zoo keeper

sold him the bear and they made preparations to fly the huge bear to ALASKA. A team awaited the bear's arrival. They gently unloaded the bear in his 8 by 10

cage and loaded him on a truck and drove hours out into the wild. The team knew there

were other bears in this area. They had built an observation deck to watch the bear

as he adjusted to his FREEDOM.

They opened the 8 by 10 cage and released the bear. They fed him well and left

to observe him from a distance. The bear paced 8 by 10, 8 by 10. Other bears came up

to him. They accepted him. But he just paced 8 by 10, 8 by 10. The team tried many

efforts but the BEAR WAS TRAPPED, NOT BY METAL BARS, BUT BY MENTAL BARS.

After several months of taking him food the owner made the difficult choice, there

was no choice but to put the animal down.

SEEMS THE BEAR'S PAST ABUSE AND CONFINEMENT that DICTATED HIS LIFE

WAS REDUCED TO 8 BY 10... 8 BY 10... THIS IS NOT A STORY ABOUT A BIG

BEAR, THIS IS A STORY ABOUT PEOPLE THAT ALLOW SITUATIONS AND HABITS

TO DEFINE THEIR ACTIONS AND REACTIONS...