What if the Pigeon did drive the bus?

Pigeon desperately wants to drive the bus. He begs, he pleads, he’s thwarted at every attempt. Kids relate to this. There are numerous adventures they try to convince the bus driver in their world are a good idea. Like staying up past bedtime or spying a candy bar in the grocery store checkout line they just have to have; or keeping the stray puppy that follows them home from school, swearing they’ll help care for it.

Adults are no different. We all have had at least once in our lives something that we’d like to do, or that we’d like to have done that our friends or family might raise an eyebrow at, like Pigeon wanting to drive a bus. I mean, no one thinks that’s a good idea, right? As grown-ups, we might run into a similar busload of opinions if we took up a new sport or moved to a foreign country just for the experience, or left a steady, solid-paying job to pursue something riskier like starting a business or heading off to hunt for a secret treasure. 

But what if Pigeon had driven the bus? We think we know what the outcome of that adventure might be, but do we really know for sure? Yes, he might crash the bus. That’s a very real possibility. But even if he does, beyond the obvious is it such a big deal? As he says himself, “What’s the big deal? It’s just a bus!!! [And he] has dreams.” He’d learn that yeah, he probably shouldn’t have done that. But equally important, maybe even more important, he won’t have to wonder “what if.”

Pigeon reminds us, the grown-ups reading the book to a youngster in their world, that life is an adventure…that there are busses (both figurative and literal) to be tried, to be explored. If they crash, well, that happens. I don’t mean to sound casual about that. Obviously, I/we don’t want anyone to get hurt in any way.

But even with failure there is, hopefully, some measure of success. The attempt itself forces one out of a comfort zone, which means you’ve grown, you’ve gained knowledge, insight, wisdom, and even confidence, all of which are useful tools for embarking on the next great pursuit. It’s how goals are reached, how dreams are achieved. As the great Ray Bradbury once said, “If we listened to our intellect…[w]e'd never have a friendship. We'd never go in business because we'd be cynical…Well, that's nonsense. You're going to miss life. You've got to jump off the cliff all the time and build your wings on the way down.”

And wave hello to Pigeon as he drives by on the bus.

 

Inspired by: Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus by Mo Willems

Published by Hyperion Books for Children, 2003.

Winner of the Caldecott Honor Award, 2004.

Ray Bradbury quote courtesy of Brainyquote.com: https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/ray_bradbury_122053