Bare and Bear
by Michael Feeley
When I first started writing about bearing witness, I wrote it as bare witness. I’m not alone.
These two words sound exactly the same, and they trip up lots of us. They mean very different things.
Bare means uncovered.
Bare feet. A bare wall. The bare truth. The bare minimum. To bare something is to reveal it, to take away what covers it. We bare our arms in summer. We bare our souls to people we trust.
Bear means to carry.
We bear a load. We bear responsibility. We bear a child. We bear pain, and we bear good news. To bear something is to hold it up and take its weight.
A simple way to remember: bare is about what we reveal. Bear is about what we carry.
Sometimes the mix-up is funny. “Bear with me” asks for patience. “Bare with me” is an invitation of a very different kind.
The two words may be different, but in life they often work together.
To bear witness to the truth, we sometimes have to bare ourselves. Stand up. Speak plainly. Let people see where we stand. Courage asks us to uncover something so we can carry something.
To bare is to be honest about who we are.
To bear is to be faithful to what we’ve seen.
Both take strength.
What are you willing to bare? What are you willing to bear?
Thanks – Michael (he, him)
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This also matters – Small Ethical Choices Make a Difference.
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