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1. 

   BTG said, 11 months ago

   I’d like to invite every Australian Lost Bear fan to join in the 2012 Winter Sleepout – the key awareness and fundraising event of Australia’s annual National Homeless Persons’ Week.
   For more information, please go to the official website: http://fundraise.wintersleepout.com.au/event/wintersleepout2012
   It’s a genuinely fun event for a seriously worthwhile cause. I guarantee it will be a personal highlight you will long remember.
   BTG
2. 

   win said, 11 months ago

   s’truth, Bear! I now have a new screen saver, thanks
3. 

   Superfrog said, 11 months ago

   This is an excellent initiative. I’ll check out the site and give it serious consideration. I’m a cold frog and not sure if I’m up to sleeping rough these days but I’ll see what can be done.
   I just checked out some stats and was surprised to see that my region has a higher percentage of homeless than the average for Queensland and that the percentage for indigenous people is higher than for non-indigenous people..
4. 

   INGSOC said, 11 months ago

   Has encountered a portal within the endless depths of many levels….
5. 

   Happy, happy, happy!!! said, 11 months ago

   risking ire here, i would like to point out that you don’t have to be homeless to be lonely…
   that being said, i am happy that i have a bed to keep me warm, and a dog to keep me company…
6. 

   Tame said, 11 months ago

   Also, your cartoon today is one of your best.
7. 

   pcolli said, 11 months ago

   @Happy, happy, happy!!!

   No ire, (and I’m sure you’re sympathetic of the cause) but there are many reasons for homelessness, some people are homeless because they just couldn’t stand to be where they were. In spite of that, everybody deserves a space of their own with a roof, four walls and basic amenities. It’s a start on the road to recovery and self esteem.
   -——-
   It might be winter in Australia, but June in Devon, UK isn’t much better this year and any one who voluntarily sleeps out in winter deserves support. Winter in Queensland wasn’t too bad when I was a kid, but I’m sure the southern states are colder.
   -——-
   To digress; I used to have the most amazingly intelligent conversations with a “tramp” when in my “hippy” years, so not all “dossers” are uneducated and could do a lot for themselves if given the opportunity.
8. 

   BTG said, 11 months ago

   @win

   You’re very welcome, Win.
   Thank you for taking this message to heart.
   BTG
9. 

   BTG said, 11 months ago

   @Superfrog

   Thank you, Superpun,
   Those are very interesting facts. And disturbing facts too, considering the torrential rain and vast Queensland floodplains of this past year.
   Anything you can do to spread the message in the lead up to August 4th would be appreciated.
   BTG
10. 

    BTG said, 11 months ago

    @INGSOC

    The nice thing about portals, is that you can usually go both ways. I would that our famished and frigid friend find his way back to the glow of warmth and kinship, and soon.
    BTG
11. 

    BTG said, 11 months ago

    @Happy, happy, happy!!!

    No ire shall be forthcoming, Young Hallford.
    You are wholly right that loneliness is a form of homelessness, and a private winter’s night.
    That being said, in the context of National Homeless Persons’ Week we are really focussed on the two most basic stratum of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs: of physiological well being, and a sense of safety. If we can help give people these two things, then there is hope that the higher needs of Love, a sense of Belongingness and Self Esteem will follow.
    BTG
12. 

    BTG said, 11 months ago

    @pcolli

    I too have met some fascinating homeless men and women – though the brilliant and crazy souls that delighted me with their unfettered and fractured insights were in small number, when compared to the legions of truly lost and emotionally wounded.
    My years in the Army make me at least somewhat aware of how miserable it must be to endure cold, wet days and nights without proper clothing, a warm bed, hot water, a working toilet, or a roof over your head.
    But I have never had to ingest the hopelessness that induces the inner and ultimately unwarmable winter of the soul.
    I remember, one Tasmanian August night, about ten years ago – It was snowing in the mountains about 20 or 30 miles away. I was in an aluminium walled caravan on my farm, before the house was complete, and with the temperature outside plummeting below freezing point, I just couldn’t get warm no matter what I did.
    I had two Great Danes piled on the bed with me, but the third felt crowded and went back to the floor … but it was so cold that he cried in his sleep. And I literally cursed him for not getting up on the bed, to share his warmth and ours. In the morning he was too cold to move, and so I mustered all my strength and dragged him up onto the bed, and shovelled him under the covers, and hugged him, like a drowned man brought to life, until he was warm again.
    A few days later I was being interviewed on the radio, and the appeal for National Homeless Persons’ Week was going out, and I suddenly realised how hideously dark and cold the night must be to someone who did not have even the basics of modern domestic life. How brutal and tragically all-consuming it must be to devote your wondrous life force to merely staying alive for one more day, rather than to exploring, creating and expressing the majesty of your mind.
    It’s not a lesson I have ever forgotten.
    BTG
13. 

    BTG said, 11 months ago

    @Tame

    It’s very kind of you to say so, Tame.
    I was hoping to create something sad and beautiful.
    This was the best I could do.
    BTG
14. 

    sandflea said, 11 months ago

    Time to reflect.
15. 

    Tame said, 11 months ago

    @BTG

    You did well. Now take the rest of the weekend off.
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