Last night, Lee and I were discussing how well his business is going. The one downside to all his success is that he has a client overload, and often has to work at night and on weekends to keep up with demand. After we talked about work for a while, I paid our bills and went to bed. Then I had this dream:
Lee and I were on vacation in Montana with Anna and Jason. We’d driven our pick-up truck (imaginary, since we don’t have one) to some state park, and were all in the parking lot. Suddenly, several grizzly bears sauntered in to the parking lot, weaving around the cars and in and out of the surrounding woods. No one seemed too worried, so I just pulled out my video camera and starting recording them.
Anna and Jason went inside the visitor’s center while I kept rolling on the bears. Then, another bear popped out of the woods – this time a huge polar bear. People seemed a little more leery, so I took a step toward our truck.
I was getting terrific video. The bear was standing up on his hind legs, roaring, with his mouth open wide revealing massive teeth. But then, he plopped back down on all fours and began loping in our direction. Startled, Lee and I jumped into the truck for safety, but I kept recording.
He continued our way, until he abruptly stopped and lunged after a man in the parking lot. It was horrible. The polar bear began swiping at him with his huge paws and claws, knocking him around like a ragdoll and then biting him. I quit rolling tape, knowing I’d never want to relive the horror in front of me, and feeling that we had to help.
“Lee! We have to do something!” I said, while the man shrieked in pain. “Let’s try to hit the polar bear with our truck.”
Lee looked skeptical.
I added, “If we can just knock the bear down, maybe the man can get away.”
Lee reluctantly put the truck in drive, and rolled toward the bear. Slowly. Admittedly, the bear would be hard to hit without also hitting the man, but I felt certain we had to try. I hoped Lee would speed up at the last second and ram the crazy animal.
But instead, Lee began backing up, then turned the truck around and drove out of the parking lot. Astonished, I asked him, “What are you doing? We have to help him!”
Lee replied, “Look. I have a lot of client work to do, and with the way gas prices are these days, we can’t afford to keep trying to help.”
When I woke up, I’m not sure what disturbed me more – watching a man get mauled by a polar bear, or our pitiful excuse for ditching the rescue attempt!