Keep The Wagon
On occasion, kids can still be seen ostensibly, enjoying fresh air. Traversing to and from school, mandatory recess and playing outside their homes. Children, prior to leaving the confines of the home front and womb like, security of their computer, are in most cases, threatened, chastised, and/or tasered. If not for the handy smartphone, life would in fact be likened to the Great Depression, had anyone told them of it. ‘A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush,’ maxim is now abandoned early in life as illustrated with a phone call. Being deep in the throes of a personal conversation with someone is no preclusion from immediately ending the dialogue in favor of the unknown caller, but rather has become convention. This school of thought and technological ‘advancement’ has left us with an imagination deficit, where once was a surplus. Where people once wondered why, and may have probed the issue, those considered go getters ‘google’ it. Those few that ask why not, are the pioneer stock that keep this rodeo going.
Many a concept was born of an intriguing exchange between a budding entrepreneur and support staff. The support staff sometimes consisted of a stuffed bear, monkey and a lion that were always behind their leader, by design. By design, because that’s where the wagon was they were riding in. To a passerby, a little fella or girl was pulling a wagon filled with button eyed toys, when in fact, the tomorrow of today was being molded in an impromptu walkaround, by the future. Yes, the future. The stuffed animals, with plenty of time on their hands were chocked full of ideas and their pal up front, the only one to bounce them off of.
Who among us can say with any certainty, that a giraffe named Jerome, sitting in a cart, didn’t mention offhandedly and in a stately manner, “if we had a motor on this thing, we could travel much faster.” And who’s to say the boy navigating that cart wasn’t Henry Ford? Yes indeed, and before you ask, I have it on good authority, young Ben Franklin had a wagon as well.
My message is that wonderment must be encouraged and not stifled, an internet search engine is not the last word and imagination is not finite. Imagination happens when you don’t know it. Sometimes it’s just a bear, a monkey or a lion with a lot to say.