Monsters & Math Class

or: black bears & black holes: a life, school, & home update.

I was on my usual trail trot this morning, padding down a path that hugs the forest to my right and opens up into a vast meadow to my left. I’m looking straight ahead of me into the foggy morning when 50 feet in front of me a big black bear bursts from the threshold of the forest into the meadow at full speed. (Black bears run at a pace of 30-35mph. The fastest human ever recorded - Usain Bolt - ran a 27.5mph. I average a 5-6mph pace on the trails, 7-7.5mph if I’m racing on the road.) I stopped in my tracks, Grua (my canine companion) stopped with me. I watched as the bear’s charge slowed into what looked like a joyful frolic in the meadow. As the bear eased from galloping into a slower, lower to the ground trot and moved away from me, he became obscured again by the tall grasses and trees of the meadow.

Photo one: Grua and I trotting in the same area where we saw the bear on a different misty morning. Photo two: Ursus americanus by Mass Audubon

By my watch, the whole experience lasted a few minutes. But for me, time stood completely still as I beheld the bear. The sharp contrast of the bear’s black fur - a black blacker than vantablack, all encompassing, swallowing - with the soft grays and greens of the misty morning…it was mesmerizing. Like a black hole swallowing time and rendering it unmovable. I became nothing and everything in that moment of witnessing. It stirred something buried within me.

In my science classes I’m learning how a strong gravitational pull - like that of a black hole - can stop time. How photons that translate in our eyes to color and visible light exist in a different space/time than we do. Moments like the one with the bear this morning deepen my emotional understanding of these concepts.

It’s worth mentioning that this big beautiful bear, a male based on my size estimation (female black bears in this region typically reaching 175lbs and males closer to 400lbs), did not seem to witness me. Or at least, he decided to pay my wide eyes no mind. Grua clocked my reaction and stood silently with me (as I do with him when he spots something in the woods that I miss completely), making no move to follow the bear.

If there was an urge to run away - I fought it. Both so that I could continue to watch the scene unfold and because I know it’s a really bad move to run when you see a bear - doing so basically announces yourself as prey and triggers a chase response. Not that black bears prey on humans, or rather they very, very rarely do. And when they do, it is not because you surprised them in the woods (unlike a grizzly bear who may attack if surprised), it’s because they were desperate enough to consider a human a possible prey and let’s just say in that case, you likely wouldn’t be witnessing the bear until it was very, very close. Obviously nothing like that was happening here, but I still felt the need to stand my ground, a little human and a little dog in the big woods. I stood up straight with a big stick in my hand and slowly backed away with my body still facing the direction of where the bear had been, and still was, albeit obscured by foliage.

After a little while, I started trotting again.

We’re not just afraid of predators, we’re transfixed by them, prone to weave stories and fables and chatter endlessly about them, because fascination creates preparedness, and preparedness, survival. In a deeply tribal sense, we love our monsters.” - E.O Wilson

I felt prepared for this encounter. Why? Because during all the hours of manual labor I have been pouring into home renovations this summer, I have also been listening to a podcast by a bear biologist, specifically all of the episodes about bear-human interactions. I’ve learned so much! And despite some of these encounters ending very, very badly, it’s helpful to know what went wrong and what the circumstances were. As someone who is frequently in bear habitat, I want to know how to behave so that when inevitable encounters happen, I can keep both myself and the bear safe. If you are inclined to listen, the bear biologist is Wes Larson and the podcast is Tooth and Claw. The more I learn, the more my fear transforms into respect and readiness.

Note: if you want to learn more about bears in your region, you can probably find research happening at a nearby university. In my case, I’ve been monitoring bear sightings via MassBears, a project of the University of Massachusetts.

Besides my recent fascination with bears, I’ve also spent the past few years casually learning about sharks in spare moments. You might recall that I wrote about my deep desire to see a shark on the vineyard this summer and my jubilance when that wish was fulfilled by a small shark swimming by me in the surf. (Am I manifesting these encounters??) I think my fear of sharks (though still present) transmuted partially into intense fascination when I learned that the shallows of the nearby Atlantic Ocean surrounding Cape Cod, are home to “one of the densest seasonal congregation of adult white sharks in the world”. The quote is from another podcast episode I first listened to on Halloween in 2021 and have listened to a few times a year since then. It’s a fascinating story about ecology and interspecies interactions. I recommend giving it a listen this time of year both because the shark populations around Cape Cod are around their seasonal peak and because there is a certain ~mood~ of the piece that lends itself well to the autumnal season descending upon us.

To wrap up this wildlife segment, I want to recommend one more podcast. This one is about birds in Ireland and it is delightful. By my favorite, the Blind Boy Podcast.

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Colorful snaps from labs and isotherm line drawing in the past week

In class and needing to pass you a note because I’m bubbling up about how chemistry and biology are taking my understanding of making plant medicine and botanical dye to a whole new level. ahhhhh!

AMA about going back to undergrad in your thirties for free, I can’t believe the sea of resources I suddenly have access to and it’s all just so exciting and feels like it is bolstering my work in ways that will be paying dividends…forever?

But, if you don’t want to go back to school (reasonable), may I remind you about Khan Academy? It was my lifeline when I was studying to get placed into the right math class for my science major - and it got me in despite not having studied math formally in …a long, long time. Turns out all that math I was doing formulating your tinctures and balms and keeping the financials of Suntrap straight have been keeping my math sharp all along.

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Speaking of labs, last week I sent a bunch of paint chips from our century old house to one to have them tested for lead. I’m eagerly awaiting the results so I can strap on my respirator, power up my orbital sander and start blasting away at a few areas I’m desperate to paint but I’m also a little suspicious of. Crossing my fingers that they are lead-free!

I’m using a free online tool to create blueprints of each room I’m working on and it’s so helpful and is vaguely reminiscent of playing the sims. I’m currently working on designs for two bathrooms and the kitchen. I won’t bore you with the blueprints but I am sharing a peak into the aesthetics because why not, I think we all like that kind of thing here. It’s a small bathroom without a ton of light so I’m planning to get a 4x4 white tile and use it for the bathroom floor, shower floor, and shower wall. I think it will make everything feel so bright and cohesive! The gorgeous wood trim has sadly been painted in that room, and not a nice color, so I’m going to paint the trim that is on the top, bottom, and middle of the room a deep green and paint the walls and ceiling a misty sage green. I’m thinking of going with gold hardware to add warmth. BTW it is currently painted black and red :o and not in a chic way lol

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Bears, sharks, science, home design. That is it from me this week. If you are seeking autumnal recipes, visit my recent Hawthorn newsletter :) Comments are open to all on this post - if you want to share about your own bear/shark/megafauna experiences, I would love to hear them.

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Geraldine

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