PROFESSOR ONESTONE'S BROWN BEAR UNIVERSITY
a novel for children and adults
by
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CHILDREN OF THE STARS The cubs from the Green Forest knew recess was over when Professor Onestone came back to the meadow and banged his paws against his stomach. As they heard the well known drum-like sound, they all gathered in the meadow. “Our home territory, our planet where we share resources with the other species is called Earth. Earth is a large ball that moves across celestial space. That blue ball, Earth, revolves around sun along with seven other sisters and one dwarf. The sun is a huge fireball, called a star. Like all other stars from far, far away, our sun provides our daylight. The Sun along with its eight children, the planets, make up a family called the solar system. This system is only a small part of the Milky Way Galaxy, which includes many suns, planets and their moons,” said Professor Onestone in his introduction. “Hence, my dear Teddy Bears, each of us can be considered a child of the Earth, which itself is a child of the sun, which is a child of the galaxy. All the stars we see twinkling at night are our sisters,” said Professor Onestone. He paused for a moment. He had completed the first part of his lecture. Now, he wanted to say something meaningful. “Now imagine. It follows that we are all nothing less than children of the stars” he finished his thought proudly. Silence settled in the meadow. The cubs’ eyes looked as if they were all were gently touched by the magical words, “children of the stars.” The cubs’ hearts were all filled with an unexpected excitement and contentment. Until today, they had thought they were only children of their bear-parents, and in a larger sense, children of the Green Forest. They whispered, “We are children of the stars.” It was a whole new way of looking at things. The lesson added a sprinkle of magic to their existence and stretched their imaginations far beyond the limits of the blue sky above. This new natural law added a new meaning to their lives. “Wow,” was the only comment the cubs made as they waited for what Professor Onestone would say next. To Wince a close relationship with the stars was very special. Our lives go far beyond the whole earth, he thought. We are part of space and of the stars. We are all made by the same matter as the universe, Wince sighed. His eyes sparkled, and a big smile appeared beneath his whiskers. He didn’t have a father bear, but he did have the stars. That was more precious than anything. Professor Onestone continued with his lecture on the science of the earth and its galaxy. He spoke with energetic passion. The cubs listened as if mesmerized. Onestone stood on two feet, like a human being, while he talked. He made gestures with his paws as he explained the magic order in the universe. “Our earth is the third of eight children of the sun. It is the most beautiful of all. It gets its blue color from the air surrounding it. Only our planet, of all the eight children of the Sun, has the right conditions for plants and animals, from invisibly small ones to the gigantic ones. The other seven are empty and lifeless. "Can you imagine?” he asked. “Any questions?” “There are many, many, questions, sir,” said Mutto, the Dummy-Gummy bear, as they called him. “It is great to know that you have questions, Mutto,” replied Professor Onestone. “Sorry, if I seem stupid, but I do not understand how the stars and planets were born. They should have some parents, as well? Were they born from some mother-stars or did the stork bring them? It wasn’t clear from your talk?” asked Mutto. Onestone beamed at Mutto. He was pleased to be asked the hardest of all questions in the world, the question of the creation. He paused for a moment, thinking how to make his answer simple enough for one-year-old cubs. “Okay, okay, let me tell you about the parents of the stars and the planets. Before the universe was created, space was just a hole of nothingness. There was no water, earth, thunder, or lightning. There was no life either. And, then came a Great Force, which we bears call HeShe. This being is the almighty father bear, He, and a mother bear, She. It is both the parents in one being. HeShe came out of nowhere and exploded the fuzzy nothingness. The explosion created the stars and planets and their moons. After some time the Great Force, separated air from water. Then it separated the land from the water. HeShe, then separated the day from the night, and so was our planet created.” “But, tell us, please, how were we, the bears, created? From nothingness or from the dirt?” asked Wince with great interest. “Well, it was just a continuation of the work of the Great Force, which created order in the universe. It created nature, landscapes and finally, with a great love and joy, it created life. The first living creatures were in the oceans and seas. Next came plants, bugs, and fungi, all the way to the birds and finally, the mammals. We, the bears are mammals because our moms breastfeed us with milk. The Great Force then gave all the species the power to breed. Finally, the Great Force created humans. The HeShe was exhausted after all that work and left to rest. It assigned the humans to manage all the plants and animals. Human beings named us ’bear’ or ‘ursus.’ “We should remember that the humans are our friends and enemies at the same time. Humans are our masters and controllers. Our lives, our fates, are in their hands. Tomorrow, we’ll learn about humans. Now, go home, and have a nice day. Don’t forget to nibble on the grass in the meadow. I know, I know. You are not cows. You do not graze. But the grass is good for your stomach.” With that, Teacher Onestone ended his talk. “Please teach us more about the stars that shine at night.” Several cubs called out at once. “We’ll continue tomorrow. Now go straight home. And don’t snarl, roar, or bite at one another. Bear hugs with claws are forbidden.” “Till tomorrow,” replied the sweetest little cubs in the whole continent of Europe.
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About the Book
Deep in the green forest of Bitterland, Professor Medo Onestone teaches his brown bear cub students the art of survival and science of existence. He teaches about ozone holes, climate change, poaching, and most of all humans, who are responsible for the other problems. Professor Onestone is a sad bear. He misses his beloved wife who was killed by poachers for her pelt. His mother was also killed and his youngest brother was captured for the zoo. When Professor Onestone visits him there, he finds that living in a cage has given his brother an unexpected outlook on life and liberty. Teaching about climate change convinces the good professor that he must take action. He and his prize student, Wince, along with Wince’s beautiful mother, set out for the Big City with three stones engraved with declarations and codes. The stones will change the way that humans and bears interact and puts humans on track for a better planet. A sellout in Macedonia, Professor Onestone’s Brown Bear University has entertained and informed children there since it was first published in 1999 under the title, Profesorot Ednokamchev.
About the Author
A native of Macedonia, Mimoza Ristova is a university professor, scholar, columnist, novelist, playwright, and human rights activist. Winner of the prestigious Fulbright Scholars Grant for 2014, she is a visiting scientist at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA, where she is doing research in solar energy materials. In Macedonia, she teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in Physics, Solar Energy, and Forensic Sciences at the Ss.Cyril and Methodius University in Skopje. In her native country, Mimoza Ristova is a well known columnist and author of many physics textbooks, novels and plays in Macedonian language. Mimoza Ristova’s play about physicist Marie Curie's passionate life and her fight against discrimination has been featured as a reading at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. (2012) and was performed at the Eurotopique Festival in France (2014). The Radiant Love of Maria S.C. is currently available on Kindle.