Bears and Foxes

“Young Gábor Molnár was nine years old when he formulated his theory that all humans are born as bears. Because bears – he said – are patient, understanding, and attentive, and know how to play with others – and he proceeded to list all the qualities that children like to see in adults. At the opposite end of the scale is the fox. The fox is a selfish creature, like adults are in reality. In Gábor’s view, all humans are born bears, but life ‘foxifies’ them. Seriously. At nine years old, Bear told me that life takes adults and ‘foxifies’ them. I asked him what he meant by that, and he said, ‘why not? There are adults that remain bears their whole lives. You, for example. And our housekeeper. But my dad – he’s got a bit of the fox in him.’ Bear’s father was a lawyer and I’m sure he’d heard plenty of the sorts of things that happen in a lawyer’s office, things that would qualify as ‘fox-like’ on his child’s scale of ethics.

In Bánk, we lived by the principle that all people are born bears. That’s why we called the little kids cubs and when they reached the age of ten or twelve, they became bears. And when someone caused trouble, we told them not to ‘turn fox-like on us’.” (Eszter Leveleki)