Running for Your Life: “Considers”

When it comes to animals – giant crabs, the common swift, the hedgehog, to name a few – “Consider” the writings of Katherine Rundell, who pens the “Consider the (fill in the blank)” column on an intermittent basis in the London Review of Books.

A fan of David Foster Wallace’s “Consider the Lobster” essay, I find we don’t train our attentions enough on what animals can teach us. (More on this topic soon; am finishing a superlative book called “Our Wild Calling” by nature writer Richard Louv).

I say, Consider the Black Bear, my totem mammal.

The reason is twofold -- during hibernation, what scientists call carnivore lethargy (although as my pal K points out, bears are omnivores, but whatever), the black bear …

After three months, their bladders are empty -- they recycle water through their kidney systems. And the quality of their blood is so pure that there has never been a recorded blood clot (I’ve had some doozies in my time) in a black bear during carnivore lethargy.

Next: Running for Your Life: Our Wild Calling