It pains me, sometimes, that Republicans have taken such a complex and fascinating animal as the elephant as their symbol, as they certainly don’t live up it. (It also pains me that Democrats quite often live up to their symbol, but I guess that’s part of being in the reality based community ;). But this diary is not politics and symbols, or even animals… or not really, anyway.
I read an article somewhere, a long time ago, the poignancy of which stuck with me for a long time. It was explaining how elephants are migratory creatures, wandering over hundreds and hundreds of miles a year, through fairly well established feeding and resting areas, the same routes time after time. Well, until their areas are taken up by ‘civilization’, but that’s another story. Of course, some of their group dies from time to time, from old age, or disease or an attack. The remaining herd will stay around for a brief period, holding what could be termed a sort of mourning/goodbye ceremony, before moving on. But that’s not the end of it.
The elephants continue on their journeys, foraging for food, mating, breeding, birthing new baby elephants along the way, until eventually the circle comes closed again and they return to the areas where they left their dead… and pause. By this time, a year or so after the death, there is nothing left of the dead elephant but bones and maybe tusks, but the older elephants, during the pause, reach out their trunks and gently pat and stroke the remains, with others coming forward to do the same… before they again move on to the next destination.
No one knows what they are doing or thinking during that pause… are they just identifying a dead body through smell? Are they remembering the one they lost, and doing the equivalent of placing flowers on a grave? Are they seeking solace, strength, comfort from the proximity of their former friend, cousin, aunt, uncle? Do they think about us, humans, and shake their heads? Or, are they just curious as to what this is that seems so familiar but so foreign…
I don’t know, and of course at this point in time, it’s impossible to tell. And, realistically, we’ll never be able to tell unless we learn to speak and understand their language. Maybe when we evolve a bit more. But, it doesn’t actually matter in relation to this piece, because this is not about elephants. Or, not really… it’s about the need, from time to time, for an Elephant Pause.
Between Schiavo, grandstanding Republicans, bankruptcy bills, social security/medicare insolvency, IraqIranSyriaLebanoIsrael schoolshootingsjudgekillingsgenocidewardeathreligiousrightandtheocracy sometimes I feel like I’m in a whirlwind of bad news, and that it wouldn’t bother me at all if a meteor hit the earth or something and just got rid of everyone. That’s when I know it’s time to just stop and reflect and remember.
Just about anything can be an elephant pause.. kid o’s diaries come to mind. You’ll be rushing along, busy, busy, busy with everything and he’ll quietly appear, hold up a finger and with a smile and soft touch, bid you stop for a moment and see what he sees… and remember what matters most. Or meeting people in the oddest places and situations, the little moments that affirm your belief in humanity and in the goodness of many people that you might miss because your vision is filled to the brim with other things.
Like the spiky, multicolored haired kid, weighted from head to toe with odd pieces of metal stuck through his skin, who graciously, unasked, and with a smile, offered me the use of his cell phone when it became clear that the people on the pay phones were going to be there a while. Or, hearing them before I could see them the other day, the young former gang member, covered with tattoos, and his 3 year old son… walking along the street shouting at each other. They are having a contest, he explains when he reaches me, each shouting “I LOVE YOU!” at the top of their lungs… to see who loves who the most.
Little things, most of them, unimportant in themselves, but that bring a smile when they come to mind, and a good feeling… all is not lost, all will never be lost, as long as someone is around to smile, and pause, and remember.
What are your pause memories?
on elephants doing exactly what you describe. In one instance a young mother elephant’s baby died and she stayed behind stroking it for a long time after the herd had moved on. Later on the herd reached the remains of an old matriarch who had died the previous season. It certainly looked as if they were paying their respects.
It’s hard to think of a creature with a larger brain than ours as being stupid.
As a pause moment I’ll repost what I shared with Kossacks on New Year’s eve:
Recommended.
from the BBC:
I’ve always loved elephants and hated that the are the symbol of the Republican party.
That is lovely, that moment. I’ve seen sunrises and sunsets like that, and wished I had a camera, but then thought maybe it was better in memory.
I find elephants endlessly fascinating, for some reason… I suspect that we’ll not know their true depths for some time to come, as well as that of other animals, because well.. they are “animals” and it’s uncomfortable thinking of them as having feelings and such.
Thanks for sharing your memory 🙂
Anyone with a pet (well, if it is a mammal or a bird) knows that animals have emotions. And the large social mammals are clearly capable of much more. Whales and the great apes for example. Chimps are capable of murder and war as well as culture and tool use. Should come as no surprise really, considering that we share some 99% of our genetic code with them.
What did surprise me a bit recently was the finding that birds are much brighter than they are generally given credit for. Parrots for example are capable of mastering syntax. There was a really interesting article on it in the NYT recently. Did you see it?
I’m so glad I don’t live in the States right now. It is so easy to forget that the mess by just driving to a mountain village or hopping on a ferry to an island.
Thank you for this diary 🙂
I think I read about the birds learning syntax. And also about fish feeling pain, which was somewhat disconcerting to a few ‘catch and release, it doesn’t bother them at all’ fishers I know. I never know quite what to do or think, when it comes to animals, as I’ve only really been around dogs and cats. I’m not a vegetarian or anything, but the more studies that are done on various species, the more I realize how much we’ve wrongly assumed for so many years.
Funny thing about living in the states right now, for me, is the contrast between the aware and the unaware. I suppose that happens everywhere tho, where there are those who follow overall political, social and geopolitical issues (and not just local ones), and worry, and those who don’t.
Maybe ignorance really is bliss 🙂
Grand diary, and an important reminder.
Have you read When Elephants Weep-Masson and McCarthy? It’s a lovely and heart rending book, I’ll have to find it again now that you’ve brought it to mind.
My pause moment lately is to rest my eyes on the river we live on, it’s still cold here and there is snow on the ground and trees but the geese have returned and they stream down the dark river every morning. It gives me hope that spring will finally come, that beauty is still there, just outside my window if I only take the time to notice it.
No, I haven’t read that, I’ll look it up thanks.
A river outside your window… now that would cause me to pause a bit more often than was good for me, I think. I wonder what is so inviting and healing about water, sometimes. I don’t like to be in water much, but I love to look at it, and just watch it go by and dream. Oceans, rivers, puddles even.
Thank you for sharing yours.
Me too, I think it’s a result of reading Wind in the Willows as a child, lol…I’ve grown up to be water rat.