ABSTRACT
In Minneapolis, after I had held a series of storytelling sessions at the Andersen Open School, I walked into the classroom one day and told the children, “No more fairy tales or myths.” I announced that I was going to tell them a real story, and I proceeded to recall the following anecdote.
https://s3-euw1-ap-pe-df-pch-content-public-p.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/9781315021980/b0b3b605-8917-4d2a-b8e6-05f2b7b62bdb/content/fig8-1_B.tif" xmlns:xlink="https://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"/> When I was about seventeen years old, I had a big fight with my parents. I had told them that I needed their car to go to school and meet some students in the evening to rehearse a play, but I really went to a party. When my father and mother found out, they yelled at me and grounded me for lying to them. Well, I was so hurt and so mad that I stole the car after they went to bed. It must have been around midnight, but I didn't care. I just wanted to run away, and I headed up north.
As I was driving, it began to snow. I should have checked the weather report, but I hadn't had time. Well, the fact was, I was driving into a blizzard. I drove and drove until I could go no further. When I got stuck, I knew I shouldn't stay in the car or I would freeze to death. So I got out and started walking. I couldn't see anything. My coat was covered with ice and snow. I was shivering and on the verge of tears, but even my tears froze, and I kept wishing that I had never left home. I could barely move, but I knew I shouldn't stop or I would freeze in the snow. Suddenly, I came upon a cave and rushed inside. It was pitch black. I couldn't see a thing. I was still cold, but at least I was protected from the snow. At least, I thought I was safe until, all at once, I heard a roar. Not a plain roar, but a ferocious roar. I turned and blinked. Standing before me was a huge, five-hundred-pound grizzly bear looking right into my eyes. I was paralyzed with fright! I was so scared that I think my heart stood still. What was I going to do? I had no weapons with me, not even a knife. I couldn't run out into the snow. I wasn't stronger than the bear. I certainly wasn't faster. Finally, I remembered—bears could be hypnotized if you kept still and looked into their eyes for three minutes, straight into their eyes without blinking. So, I summoned my courage. While the bear was trying to make up his mind whether or not to eat me, I stared at him, straight into his eyes. After a while the bear seemed to be humming and in a trance.
“Bear,” I said.”Sit up!”
The bear sat up.
“Bear,” I said “Turn over!”
The bear turned over.
You can't imagine how happy I felt. I looked around, and I saw that it was beginning to get light outside. So I said,”Bear, lie down!”
I got on top of the bear, and I said,”Bear, carry me home.”
And the bear left the cave, and I directed the bear through the snow toward my home early in the morning. When I got there, my parents were astonished. At first, they wanted to run and get the police, but when I jumped off and ran to them, they realized there was no danger. Still, they had been very worried about me, and they made me promise never to lie or run away again. As for the bear, who was still hypnotized, we gave him to the zoo, and if you want to find out whether I'm telling the truth, you just have to go down to the Minneapolis zoo and ask old Mike the zookeeper, who's in charge of the grizzly that carried me home and sort of saved my life in the blizzard.
https://s3-euw1-ap-pe-df-pch-content-public-p.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/9781315021980/b0b3b605-8917-4d2a-b8e6-05f2b7b62bdb/content/fig8-2_B.tif" xmlns:xlink="https://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"/>