Is This Your Elephant?

I’m getting too old to travel. At least it feels that way. Hard to motivate myself to go out even for Happy Hour. But I do enjoy taking walks with my wife or driving to the pool to swim laps. Exercise is all part of trying to stay healthy after 75. As they say—you have to run twice as fast just to stay in place.

We’re lucky. We can swim at the local high school pool with limited hours or at the Jewish Community Center with continual hours from early to late. Most often, we opt for the latter since that way we don’t have to plan. And it’s a pleasant drive with great views of Lake Michigan. Who’s to complain?

Most of the way is along a wide, tree-lined street with upper-class homes. Frequently, we see several cherry-pickers parked on the street or in front yards. Lots of different colors—orange, yellow, red, green—some with company names, others plain. We debated whether they looked more like giraffes or elephants, eventually deciding they were elephants, the bucket at the top being the head. One of us joked, “Hey, that one has your name on it.” The quick reply: “No, that’s not my elephant.”

The jokes snowballed. We imagined leaving notes on the “elephants,” asking whoever found them to return them to their owner. Eventually, we decided we’d participate in our own joke. If someone brought the elephant to our house, we’d look at it, sadly shake our head, and say, “Sorry, that’s not our elephant. We think it belongs to the guy two houses down.”

The elephant jokes petered out after a while, but now we chuckle when we see any that may have strayed from the herd.

The cherry-pickers became elephants because we could see something beyond the actual object hitting us in the face. For a moment, imagine it’s an elephant—or a long-lost uncle bringing treasures from foreign lands. Or a tree—where does it go when you’re asleep? Is there a watering hole it’s hiding from you?

Life can be tough. We take hard hits on the chin, but there are ways to turn little defeats into bigger victories, like turning cherry-pickers into elephants.

At the annual World Explorers Convention, an Englishman gave a talk titled “The Elephant and the British Empire.” A Frenchman followed with “The Sex Life of the Elephant.” After a break, the Jew got up to talk about “The Elephant and the Jewish Problem.” Alas, no one returned after the break, but I got to tell another elephant joke.

And now, I’ve got to change, get ready to go out for Happy Hour. I think I’ll go as an elephant.

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Ken was a Professor of Mathematics, a ceramicist, a welder, and an IBMer until downsized in 2000. He taught yoga until COVID-19 decided otherwise. He continues writing, living with his wife and beagle in Shorewood, Wisconsin. He enjoys chamber music and mysteries. He’s a homebrewer and runs whitewater rivers. Ken is a writer and his literary works can be found at https://www.kmkbooks.com/

He welcomes feedback on his articles and can be reached at havokjournal@havokmedia.com.

As the Voice of the Veteran Community, The Havok Journal seeks to publish a variety of perspectives on a number of sensitive subjects. Unless specifically noted otherwise, nothing we publish is an official point of view of The Havok Journal or any part of the U.S. government.