Bear Festival

One of my doctors suggested that I try swimming to work on the muscles in my back.  At one time I swam 100+ miles per year, now that was 25 years ago, but as they say you never really forget how.  The condo has two pools.  An indoor pool that is open year around and a large outdoor pool that is open in the summer.  I have lived here about 6 years and had never used the pools.  I decide to start using what I am paying for.  Pleasantly, within 10 minutes or so I remembered how to swim.  It feels good to move, my endurance is steadily increasing.

I came home Friday afternoon a couple of hours early, the weather was bright and sunny with a temperature in the high 80's, so I headed off to the pool for a nice swim.  I finished my laps (15 minutes) and was lounging in the water.  I looked around and realized that I was surrounded by a crowd of large, fuzzy, hairy older people.  It looked like a geriatric bear festival.  In the Gay community bears are large, kind of round and hairy.  Bears are a subset of the community, people who are not afraid proud of their body image and people who like being around them.  Jay and I have grown into being bears (if we like it or not.) He has always been my sweet bear, and there is more of him to love then there was when we met 23 years ago.  There is a whole lot more of me then their use to be. When we met I was still swimming a couple of miles a week, and running 15-20 miles per week, and riding my bike 100 miles per week, working 50 hours per week, taking college classes two nights a week, sleep was optional, I didn't own a television.  As I slacked off, I rounded out and I very much fit the body of a bear.  Now if I can only become comfortable with this body (hey it is the only one I have.)

I have never been to a bear festival, but I have seen the pictures and there I am Friday afternoon in the middle of a crowd that would fit in well in the middle of any Palm Springs Bear Bust.  Well not exactly, they were all sober, and the average age was just shy of decomposing.

Then the bear crowd started to grow, as the men started to arrive and join in.