The bear in the shower

4 MINUTES

A woman summons a stoic calm after accidentally trapping herself in a shower

In his brief animation The Bear in the Shower, the US artist and animator Tom Schroeder finds a bit of existential poetry in a peculiar, somewhat low-stakes crisis his wife encountered when she accidentally locked herself in a friend’s shower for some six hours. With the ordeal set in an Amsterdam apartment, a female voice recalls the experience of becoming trapped in her friend’s bathroom naked, realising the prospect of escape was slim and having to pass the time knowing that her friend wasn’t returning until much later in the day. In an evocative narration that blurs the border between poetry and prose, the woman details how she summoned a bit of stoic calm by imagining a bear’s paces in the zoo, and walking back and forth in ‘cycles of monastic discipline’. Pairing the narrator’s gentle voice with a sparse, jazz-tinged original soundtrack and enchanting visuals, Schroeder, like the character at the centre of his piece, builds a mood that, rather counterintuitively, becomes a meditative exercise in relaxation.

Director: Tom Schroeder

Composer: Jonathan Zorn

Explore more

A woman inside wearing sunglasses, with a blurred reflection of people and a red bus moving outside the window.
ADHD

How to thrive as an adult with ADHD

Use ‘mindful self-coaching’ to help yourself overcome everyday ADHD challenges, from procrastination to feelings of overwhelm

by Lidia Zylowska & Joohee Seo

A switched-off smartphone on a bright yellow surface with fingerprints and smudges on the black screen.

A brief escape from social media

After leaving my phone behind for a week and coming back to it, I saw my social media use in a stark new light

by Tamur Qutab

A person using a smartphone, with focus on their finger scrolling the screen. Face partially visible.
ADHD

In an era of split attention, there is more than one type of ADHD

ADHD is typically thought to be wired into the brain early. But many cases may be better seen as products of digital life

by Paul Kudlow, Karline Treurnicht Naylor & Elia Abi-Jaoude

A man in a tweed jacket viewing a framed German wanted poster on a wall in a museum or gallery setting.

The eerie phenomenon that keeps popping up

Ever feel like a word or person you just learned about has been showing up repeatedly? There’s a term for that

by Hannah Seo

Illustration of a woman floating in space surrounded by large hands and small stars on a dark background.

The psychic who healed me

It was just like her – my bold, dead mother – to show up in my life again. Or was grief playing tricks on me?

by Amanda Leigh Lichtenstein

A couple dancing on stage, the photo focusing on their feet and shadows, with dramatic lighting and a blue spotlight.
DANCE

Dance showed me the untapped power of our attention muscle

Through tango, I sharpened attentional skills that make any moment richer. But these can be honed on or off the dancefloor

by Sara Melzer

Page from a book with printed text about society and handwritten notes in the margin, including ’True but only in part‘.

The value of scribbling in the margins

Marginalia is far from inessential. It would be a shame if it died off in the digital age

by Richard Fisher

A young boy smiling, resting his chin on his hands, looking at a marshmallow on a table.

What the marshmallow test got wrong about child psychology

Self-control, grit, growth mindset – trendy skills won’t transform children’s lives, but more meaningful interventions can

by Tyler W Watts