{"id":361,"date":"2008-02-01T19:56:00","date_gmt":"2008-02-01T19:56:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/bibleandculture\/2008\/02\/the-unbearable-lightness-of-being.html"},"modified":"2008-02-01T19:56:00","modified_gmt":"2008-02-01T19:56:00","slug":"the-unbearable-lightness-of-being","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/2008\/02\/the-unbearable-lightness-of-being.html","title":{"rendered":"The &#8216;Unbearable&#8217; Lightness of Being"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/3.bp.blogspot.com\/_MCBNSn1DlAU\/R6PBWXVgW-I\/AAAAAAAAAdU\/thvNX4g0fOM\/s1600-h\/bear6.bmp\"><img decoding=\"async\" style=\"margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt;float: left;cursor: pointer\" src=\"http:\/\/3.bp.blogspot.com\/_MCBNSn1DlAU\/R6PBWXVgW-I\/AAAAAAAAAdU\/thvNX4g0fOM\/s400\/bear6.bmp\" alt=\"\" border=\"0\" \/><\/a><br \/><a href=\"http:\/\/4.bp.blogspot.com\/_MCBNSn1DlAU\/R6PBKnVgW9I\/AAAAAAAAAdM\/f29Xyzi8vlQ\/s1600-h\/bear5.bmp\"><img decoding=\"async\" style=\"margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt;float: left;cursor: pointer\" src=\"http:\/\/4.bp.blogspot.com\/_MCBNSn1DlAU\/R6PBKnVgW9I\/AAAAAAAAAdM\/f29Xyzi8vlQ\/s400\/bear5.bmp\" alt=\"\" border=\"0\" \/><\/a><br \/><a href=\"http:\/\/3.bp.blogspot.com\/_MCBNSn1DlAU\/R6PA-XVgW8I\/AAAAAAAAAdE\/vGUQa9swIJo\/s1600-h\/bear4.bmp\"><img decoding=\"async\" style=\"margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt;float: left;cursor: pointer\" src=\"https:\/\/3.bp.blogspot.com\/_MCBNSn1DlAU\/R6PA-XVgW8I\/AAAAAAAAAdE\/vGUQa9swIJo\/s400\/bear4.bmp\" alt=\"\" border=\"0\" \/><\/a>Meet Mr. Bear.  He may look fine in this top picture, but he just lost several years off his life. I mean,  he had to be lowered in a net back down to the ground, because as you can see if you scroll down, he got himself stuck up in the crevices of a bridge, and at one point was hanging by his finger nails, or toe nails,  or whatever it is he&#8217;s got. Gives new meaning to the phrase &#8216;hanging ten&#8217;.<\/p>\n<p>It was a pretty smart thing that he took a time out and had a snooze between the overpass on the bridge, and the bottom of the bridge, but then when he tried to get out&#8212; well, things became unbearable.   Thankfully there were some friendly humans there to catch him in the orange net and lower him to the ground.<\/p>\n<p>My question is,  how will Mr. Bear explain his big adventure to Mrs. Bear, and will she even believe it?  Surely, she will not accept just the bare facts as they stand.  Maybe he could requisition some of these pictures as evidence.<br \/><a href=\"http:\/\/2.bp.blogspot.com\/_MCBNSn1DlAU\/R6PAsHVgW7I\/AAAAAAAAAc8\/axcQ96KtFTU\/s1600-h\/bear3.bmp\"><img decoding=\"async\" style=\"margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt;float: left;cursor: pointer\" src=\"http:\/\/2.bp.blogspot.com\/_MCBNSn1DlAU\/R6PAsHVgW7I\/AAAAAAAAAc8\/axcQ96KtFTU\/s400\/bear3.bmp\" alt=\"\" border=\"0\" \/><\/a><br \/><a href=\"http:\/\/1.bp.blogspot.com\/_MCBNSn1DlAU\/R6PAc3VgW6I\/AAAAAAAAAc0\/ZZutI5ljSOY\/s1600-h\/bear2.bmp\"><img decoding=\"async\" style=\"margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt;float: left;cursor: pointer\" src=\"http:\/\/1.bp.blogspot.com\/_MCBNSn1DlAU\/R6PAc3VgW6I\/AAAAAAAAAc0\/ZZutI5ljSOY\/s400\/bear2.bmp\" alt=\"\" border=\"0\" \/><\/a><br \/><a href=\"http:\/\/3.bp.blogspot.com\/_MCBNSn1DlAU\/R6PAEXVgW5I\/AAAAAAAAAcs\/dGoJ59Kao-U\/s1600-h\/bear1.bmp\"><img decoding=\"async\" style=\"margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt;float: left;cursor: pointer\" src=\"https:\/\/3.bp.blogspot.com\/_MCBNSn1DlAU\/R6PAEXVgW5I\/AAAAAAAAAcs\/dGoJ59Kao-U\/s400\/bear1.bmp\" alt=\"\" border=\"0\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Meet Mr. Bear. He may look fine in this top picture, but he just lost several years off his life. I mean, he had to be lowered in a net back down to the ground, because as you can see if you scroll down, he got himself stuck up in the crevices of a bridge,&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":199,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-361","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>The &#039;Unbearable&#039; Lightness of Being - The Bible and Culture<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/2008\/02\/the-unbearable-lightness-of-being.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The &#039;Unbearable&#039; Lightness of Being - The Bible and Culture\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Meet Mr. Bear. He may look fine in this top picture, but he just lost several years off his life. I mean, he had to be lowered in a net back down to the ground, because as you can see if you scroll down, he got himself stuck up in the crevices of a bridge,&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/2008\/02\/the-unbearable-lightness-of-being.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Bible and Culture\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2008-02-01T19:56:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/3.bp.blogspot.com\/_MCBNSn1DlAU\/R6PBWXVgW-I\/AAAAAAAAAdU\/thvNX4g0fOM\/s400\/bear6.bmp\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Ben Witherington\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The 'Unbearable' Lightness of Being - The Bible and Culture","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/2008\/02\/the-unbearable-lightness-of-being.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"The 'Unbearable' Lightness of Being - The Bible and Culture","og_description":"Meet Mr. Bear. He may look fine in this top picture, but he just lost several years off his life. I mean, he had to be lowered in a net back down to the ground, because as you can see if you scroll down, he got himself stuck up in the crevices of a bridge,&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/2008\/02\/the-unbearable-lightness-of-being.html","og_site_name":"The Bible and Culture","article_published_time":"2008-02-01T19:56:00+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/3.bp.blogspot.com\/_MCBNSn1DlAU\/R6PBWXVgW-I\/AAAAAAAAAdU\/thvNX4g0fOM\/s400\/bear6.bmp"}],"author":"Ben Witherington","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/2008\/02\/the-unbearable-lightness-of-being.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/2008\/02\/the-unbearable-lightness-of-being.html","name":"The 'Unbearable' Lightness of Being - The Bible and Culture","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/2008\/02\/the-unbearable-lightness-of-being.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/2008\/02\/the-unbearable-lightness-of-being.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/3.bp.blogspot.com\/_MCBNSn1DlAU\/R6PBWXVgW-I\/AAAAAAAAAdU\/thvNX4g0fOM\/s400\/bear6.bmp","datePublished":"2008-02-01T19:56:00+00:00","dateModified":"2008-02-01T19:56:00+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/#\/schema\/person\/d1fd6c7893819eabc624db38ecfd8426"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/2008\/02\/the-unbearable-lightness-of-being.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/2008\/02\/the-unbearable-lightness-of-being.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/2008\/02\/the-unbearable-lightness-of-being.html#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/3.bp.blogspot.com\/_MCBNSn1DlAU\/R6PBWXVgW-I\/AAAAAAAAAdU\/thvNX4g0fOM\/s400\/bear6.bmp","contentUrl":"http:\/\/3.bp.blogspot.com\/_MCBNSn1DlAU\/R6PBWXVgW-I\/AAAAAAAAAdU\/thvNX4g0fOM\/s400\/bear6.bmp"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/2008\/02\/the-unbearable-lightness-of-being.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"The &#8216;Unbearable&#8217; Lightness of Being"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/","name":"The Bible and Culture","description":"All Things Biblical and Christian","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/#\/schema\/person\/d1fd6c7893819eabc624db38ecfd8426","name":"Ben Witherington","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/75e\/75ec11e1916a2008bc4cc638a0a0de2fx96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/75e\/75ec11e1916a2008bc4cc638a0a0de2fx96.jpg","caption":"Ben Witherington"},"description":"Bible scholar Ben Witherington is Amos Professor of New Testament for Doctoral Studies at Asbury Theological Seminary and on the doctoral faculty at St. Andrews University in Scotland. A graduate of UNC, Chapel Hill, he went on to receive the M.Div. degree from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary and a Ph.D. from the University of Durham in England. He is now considered one of the top evangelical scholars in the world, and is an elected member of the prestigious SNTS, a society dedicated to New Testament studies. Witherington has also taught at Ashland Theological Seminary, Vanderbilt University, Duke Divinity School and Gordon-Conwell. A popular lecturer, Witherington has presented seminars for churches, colleges and biblical meetings not only in the United States but also in England, Estonia, Russia, Europe, South Africa, Zimbabwe and Australia. He has also led tours to Italy, Greece, Turkey, Israel, Jordan, and Egypt. Witherington has written over thirty books, including The Jesus Quest and The Paul Quest, both of which were selected as top biblical studies works by Christianity Today. He also writes for many church and scholarly publications, and is a frequent contributor to the Beliefnet website. Along with many interviews on radio networks across the country, Witherington has been seen on the History Channel, NBC, ABC, CBS, CNN, The Discovery Channel, A&amp;E, and the PAX Network.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/author\/bwitherington"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/361","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/199"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=361"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/361\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=361"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=361"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=361"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}