Two Polar Bears Fall in Love
Red Bear Brewing Co., Washington, D.C. Visited on February 23, 2023
When did you last think about Mad Max: Thunderdome? How Tina Turner, a gay icon, and Mel Gibson, a famous bigot, shared the same space and made a cult movie?
Personally, I don’t think about it very often. I saw the movie as a teenager and never again since then. I’m only thinking about it now because I’m at Red Bear Brewing and “Thunderdome” is playing on the speakers.
I nod my head, tap my foot, and stare at the mural of a polar bear with red fur. I check my watch for the umpteenth time. There’s no chance I’ll miss my train, but some habits are nearly impossible to break.
Because Red Bear is the closest brewery to Union Station (D.C.), I treat it like a decompression chamber. I unwind before the two-hour train ride south to Richmond. I need these moments to myself, the opportunity to sit in anonymity and reflect on my day, my week, my month, my year, my entire life. These are the places, spaces, and environmental conditions where I feel free to let my imagination free.
This afternoon, I’m nursing a “Tastes Like Flannel” West Coast IPA and imagining lumberjacks with long beards and hairy arms wielding sharp axes. This particular lumberjack of my imagination has snot frozen in his beard and pools of dried snot on his flannel. They look like ice patches in a ditch.
Now I’m inventing a story where a lumberjack enters a bar, orders a drink. He meets a man dressed in flannel and boots, a man who looks like a lumberjack. The former chops wood. The latter slays spreadsheets. They wear the same clothing. They have the same aesthetic. They fall in love. For one, the aesthetic is functional; the other, a status symbol.
The story I’m imagining starts to bore me. So I imagine the men are polar bears instead. Two red polar bears wearing flannel shirts and black boots. Their heads and ears covered by trapper hats. No pants, like Winnie the Pooh.
A series of books for children. This I can work with. Add it to my list of ongoing projects.