A Bear Waved at Me

Imagine that!

I was driving up Rough and Ready Highway, winding my way through the hills, when, just around a sharp curve…there it was…a bear. Startled, he reared unsteadily on his hind legs, one paw half raised, facing me from the middle of the road. I panic-stopped, dumbfounded. Moments passed. He stood there. I stared. On a childish impulse, I waved at him. Astonishingly, he waved back, raising his paw a bit further and tilting it forward and back, forward and back, just as I was doing with my own paw. Maybe ten seconds passed. Then the bear lurched down to become a four-legged creature again, and ambled off into the woods. 

I was charmed by the whole, rather surreal, experience. 

But there was no bear. There was only me, driving along Rough and Ready Highway, daydreaming, and thinking to myself, “What if I saw a bear today?” Then I daydreamed the bear, and spun out the imaginary encounter. It was fun.

Isn’t imagination extraordinary?

I’m fascinated by the human mind. Imagination especially fascinates me. The fact that my mind can concoct whole experiences out of nothing other than its own creativity amazes me. When I’m writing my columns, I’m grateful for it. When I’m telling the grandkids bedtime stories, I’m grateful for it. When I come up with a useful solution to a problem, I’m grateful for it. And, of course, when I’m driving, especially long distances, I’m grateful for it.

Of all the things human beings can do, I think imagination is the most amazing, and the most useful. Imagination enabled Gutenberg to come up with the printing press, the Wright Brothers to fly, Michelangelo and Van Gogh to create their amazing art, and don’t get me started on Steve Jobs and Elon Musk.

Some people think they’re not creative…not imaginative at all. I beg to differ. If you can dream, you can imagine. You may have gotten out of the habit, or blocked your imagination with more practical things—living life in the real world tends to crowd out imagination—but the creativity is still there, inside, waiting for you to call it forth.

I urge you to do exactly that…call it forth, release it. Take a flight of fancy. Tap into your child-mind, no matter how awkward it feels. Give it a go, and do it a lot. You’ll love it, I promise. 

And when the bear waves at you, wave back.