"There's an elephant in my bathroom!"

Above, the water closet mise-en-scène that greeted friend and reader Paul Biba last week when he checked into his room at the Hampton Inn in Las Cruces, New Mexico, a stop on his cross-country solo bike trip.

Paul told me that though as a rule he doesn't leave a tip for the maid, he made an exception in this case and dropped a fiver on the sink.

What an enterprising, clever person is the woman who thought of taking a few seconds extra to fold washcloths on her route into this whimsical heffalump.

I'm betting Paul is not the only person who breaks his or her rule upon encountering this unexpected delight and leaves a little cash present behind.

There is genius and creativity everywhere: it is all around us, if only we give it a chance to breathe and play.

If I'm an employer in the Las Cruces area, I'm dropping everything today and making a beeline for the Hampton Inn to meet this maid and offer her a job in my company at twice what she's making.

You say "joe, that's nuts —  you don't know if she can read or even speak English!"

Doesn't matter: A mind like hers transcends such mundane skills and offers a whole new view of the world to whomever she happens to encounter. 

That's priceless.