A BEAR FOR YOUR WINDOW
Have you been on a bear hunt yet? A teddy bear hunt, that is. Start looking closely at your neighbors’ windows and you’ll probably spot a bear or two, or maybe a big stuffed dog or another cuddly stuffed animal.
Inspired by the 1989 children’s book “We’re Going on a Bear Hunt,” by Michael Rosen and Helen Oxenbury, and the human need to connect during mandatory social distancing and stay-at-home orders, people around the world have been placing teddy bears in their windows as a symbol of solidarity during the coronavirus pandemic. Families craving fresh air and a chance to stretch go on bear hunts, tallying up the bears they find on neighborhood walks or drives.
Search #bearhunt on Twitter or Facebook and you’re sure to forget, just for a moment, the ever-worrying pandemic that brought us to this spot. You’ll see photos of bears in windows — big bears, little bears, bears in chairs and bears that aren’t bears at all. Tweeted @ClancyLouise from Australia, it’s “something fun in these dark times.”
We love the idea of giving kids (and adults) a little distraction, but we worried that everyone might not have a bear to put in the window — and we didn’t want to inspire any panic-buying of stuffed teddies.
So Chicago Tribune editorial cartoonist Scott Stantis, who has his family’s Pot Belly Bear stationed in his own window, drew a bear just for you. Cut it out and tape it to a window that faces a sidewalk or a place where your neighbors
can see it. And while you’re at it, snap a photo of your bear in the window and send it to us at letters@chicagotribune.com with BEARS in the subject line. We’ll share them with our readers on our Chicago Tribune Opinion page on Facebook.
As one dad who goes on regular bear hunts with his wife and 5year-old daughter told Time magazine, “It’s a way of communicating with other people while you’re still safe in your family isolation. It’s like a silent visual message that families get to send each other from their windows, and it says, ‘We’re all in this together. I’m experiencing what you’re experiencing.’”