Touching Spirit Bear;Post-Reading

Touching Spirit Bear;Post-Reading

    Cole Matthews and Peter Driscal at the beginning and throughout the book were enemies and frankly were afraid of each other until the very end. They ended up collaborating and Peter helped Cole put a carving at the bottom of his totem pole for his dance of anger. That is where the quote “Life's a circle and every part of a circle is a beginning and end.” I am choosing to use this quote for my blog.

    When I hear this quote my emotions get mixed up. How can something be a beginning and an end? I also think that it means that everything will always be the same and that gets boring. If you are constantly going in the same direction it has to get boring. But it does say that you get a beginning and an end so maybe it is just like life, but you keep on going.

    It applies to the book because it kind of shows that you get a second chance like Cole did. He totally blew his chances by burning the shelter the first time and then hurting the Spirit Bear. Then he got mauled by the Spirit Bear, nearly died, but they rescued him. They took care of him and got him a second chance on the island. If they hadn’t returned him to the island than he could have become paralyzed and not have ever recovered his soul.

    I think that it also applies when it talks about Peter Driscal’s recovery. He sustained something very traumatizing. It also made him very insecure and made him attempt suicide two times. If he had not had the courage to face his fear and go to the island than his circle would have never even have been drawn. He started it and because of that he was put in the circle of recovering.

    In conclusion I think this quote talks about the circle of life and how when you choose to start your circle that you are immediately insuring that you will be okay. Remember, this only works if you have good intentions.

Touching Spirit Bear Pre-Reading

A totem pole shows all the things a person values in their life. Those could be many different things like your family members faces, your favorite animals, favorite color, lots of things.

    One of the things I would probably start with would be a horse running in the field with a falcon overhead. I would pick this because horses are my favorite animal. Also because they represent freedom and playfulness. Also many people see a horse as a traditional Native American symbol. The falcon flying with the horse shows the bond between different animals and not just within their own kind. The falcon also represents freedom and taking off and leaving the nest. With the two together it reminds me personally of a movie that touched my heart a lot. It was called “Spirit” and in this they talked about how the Western expansion affected the wild horses and the horse Spirit is a wild mustang and he and his partner fly along together and when Spirit gets captured he is tried to be freed by his falcon friend.

    Another thing that I would put on my totem pole would be a flashlight because it represents light in a unique way. Most people would put the sun or something like that because it represents pure light but I would want mine to be unique. The flashlight would represent the light that is easy to harness. Often in life we look at the dark side of things when really all we have to do to see the good side is look. For a flashlight, literally speaking, all you have to do is flip the switch. Then you have light. So unlike the sun a flashlight will never go away. Sometimes all you need is the light ray of light to give you hope.

    I would also add a cross because it represents 3 things, my family giving me the faith and tools to learn it, Jesus’ trust in his father,God, and the sacrifice he made for us. All of these things would factor into my totem pole.

    There are so many important things in my life that I would need to put on the pole but there are just a few. I look forward to this book.