#4 Help Others

The fourth tool in the Live Your Life Well toolkit is "Help Others."

The man in the picture is Doug Seus.  He and his wife raise and train grizzly bears for work in film and television.

My wife and I had heard about their work and knew a little bit about Bart the Bear who had been in such movies as "Legends of the Fall", "The Bear" and "The Edge."  At least initially, news coverage of the bear and his blossoming movie career was interesting, but incidental:  like watching the Weather Channel.

What changed? 

We met a dog named Dexter.

Dexter was a Newfoundland puppy, who came to live with us in 1995.  

Anyone who has ever shared their life with a large breed dog will testify to the exquisite agony of that relationship.  Big dogs come with big problems and short life spans.  As it would turn out, Dexter would be with us for just under four years before succumbing to a host of genetic disorders.  Nursing him through his many medical challenges brought us closer and made us feel his loss even more profoundly.

It was while we were feeling the loss of our own 180-pound black and white bear of a dog, that we saw a documentary called "Growing Up Grizzly" profiling Doug & Lynne Seus and Bart the Bear. 

Hosted by Brad Pitt, the show profiled the unique relationship between the Seus family and their 1200-pound grizzly.  What caught our attention immediately was the genuine respect that the humans and the bear had for one another.  Central to that mutual respect was the close contact between species.  I recall the importance that Doug Seus placed on making certain the bear knew the smell of his breath and how he would look for every opportunity to breathe into the bear's mouth.

Perhaps the most striking aspects of the documentary were the sequences where they showed Doug and Bart wrestling.  By themselves, they might look like scenes from an episode of "When Animals Attack", but they were just two friends playing, rolling around in the dirt, splashing in the pond, and trying to pin one another to the ground.

It was in those moments that we lost our hearts to a man and his bear.  

We could relate.  Granted, the size differential between Dexter and me was substantially less, but I am here to tell you, that it is just as difficult to make a 180-pound dog do something he doesn't want to do.  Our relationship was not so much master and obedient dog, as it was more of a negotiated settlement.

This year marks the 20^th anniversary of the Seus’ founding of Vital Ground, an organization dedicated to preserving the natural migration trails of the grizzly.  Founded on the premise that where the grizzly can thrive so, too, can we humans, the organization seeks to accomplish its goal in much the same way that Seus was able to establish his unique relationships with his bears:  through mutual respect.  They raise money to buy land, but more often they seek conservation easements from landowners.

Mr. & Mrs. Seus established Vital Ground as a way of honoring their partnership with Bart who has since passed away.  My wife and I have supported the organization as a way of honoring the memory of our little bear.

In early September, Vital Ground held an anniversary celebration in Park City, Utah, near where the Seus family and their bears, Little Bart and Honey Bump, live.  An important part of the event, and the main reason that we went out there, was an opportunity to see Seus and Little Bart in person.

In an area the size of a tennis court, that was delineated with a shin-high electrified cattle guard, Seus and Little Bart wrestled, played and recreated his greatest hits from his many different film, television and commercial roles.

It was a remarkable experience to be separated by only the cattle guard, a strip of yellow caution tape and less than 40 feet from this magnificent animal and to feel no fear as he came lumbering from his trailer.  As he came into view, the crowd of about 200 began to applaud and it seemed to us that this big bear got even bigger—as though he thrived on the audience approval.

Mrs. Seus would describe each of the scenes and what Bart had been asked to do, and then her husband would work with his Bear partner to recreate the moments.  Along the way, we learned that Bart loves Sprite and whipped cream, but more than either of those, he loves to play with Doug Seus.  Everything else is just foreplay to a good wrestle.

To watch them roll around on the ground is to understand what a trusting relationship is all about.  You cannot scare or intimidate a 1200-pound animal and then let them pin you to the ground with your head in their mouth without any fear that they might “forget” what “off” means.  You have to be certain; you have to trust.  It was absolutely clear to each of us there that these two, the bear and his human, were equal partners and great friends.

At the end of their presentation, Navajo dancers presented a series of ceremonial dances, culminating in the rarely performed Bear Dance. 

Throughout the dance, I was watching Mr. & Mrs. Seus and was struck by their reactions.  I don’t know either of them, so this is pure speculation on my part, but they seemed to me that during this dance to honor the Bear spirit, they were engaged in a communication every bit as spiritual as were the dancers.  So symbolic a moment was this, that it felt wrong to take this picture, like wearing a Hawaiian shirt to a funeral. 

I decided to take the picture anyway, because of the pure honesty of their response to the Bear Dance.  These were not mere animal trainers, like the whip and chair wielding Gunther Geble Williams:  the Seus’ did not tame their bears, they built a relationship and in so doing came to understand—really understand—one another.

Helping others is transactional:  each party gives and gets.  Givers get just as much, if not more than getters get.  Doug & Lynne Seus rescued their grizzlies—Bart, Tank, Little Bart and Honey Bump, but it is also true that the bears, beginning with the original Bart, gave the Seus’ much more. 

Helping others is selfless and it is also selfish.  Our decisions to give of our time and money are just as personal as the recipients we select.  For my wife and me, we support the bears because it connects us to a football-sized ball of black and white hair that grew and grew until our lives finally had a purpose.

Helping others is a way to counteract the thumbs that are all too frequently on the scales of justice.  Because of human settlement throughout the Grizzly's natural migration routes, they faced a real threat of extinction.  Vital Ground makes it possible for the remaining populations coexist with humans and to survive in their natural habitat.

Whatever your passion, helping others is good for you and it is, quite simply, the right thing to do.


--Graham Campbell
Associate Director