Sad, Sad World

Where, oh where, have the teddy bears gone? I went shopping today for teddy bears at Walmart and Target. Big mammoth national/international stores with hundreds of thousands of items, and between the two of them they only had a handful of teddy bears, in boxes no less. Who wants a teddy bear in a box? Teddy bears are supposed to be free, so they can be held, touched, looked at from all angles. How else are you going to get the perfect teddy bear just for you?

Last year Walmart and Target had teddy bears galore, but not this year. Why, I wonder? What happened to all the teddy bears? Do modern children eschew teddy bears for game boys and cell phones? Teddy bears are kind of like guardian angels. They protect you and keep you safe from the monsters under the bed. And perhaps even from the monsters who are leading this planet into chaos, war, and global warming. You can talk to a teddy bear about your fears and worries, and he'll listen and there'll be no judgements. A teddy bear will never leave you...unless your mother throws him in the garbage when you're 18 and you've left home because you think you're grown-up and you think you know everything. And then one day you find out you know hardly anything at all.

It's a sad world when you can't find a decent teddy bear.