dual personalities

I’m not sure what made me think of elephants. Perhaps it was the boy’s recent visit to the flyover zoo and his reacquaintance with Raja and his newest progeny, Kenzi. Raja was the first elephant ever born at our zoo. Now, at age 18, he has started his own dynasty, with daughter #1, Maliha, and daughter #2, Jade. Anyway, I have always loved elephants.

I am a big fan of this elephant:

Babar, a French elephant

And an elephant in a movie is always a plus:

Doris Day and Jumbo

Cary Grant has an elephant for a friend in Gunga Din, and she comes in handy once or twice, although not in this scene. (Yes, you guessed it. She wants to follow Cary onto the rickety bridge and hilarity ensues.)

Tarzan always had cool pachyderm friends. Elephants are something you definitely want on your side, because they can do this:

Cecil B. DeMille's The Sign of the Cross (1932)

One movie with an elephant I am not fond of is Disney’s Dumbo (1941) where in typical Disney fashion the child is torn from his mother’s loving embrace. When the elephant-mother is enraged, she is summarily punished. Boo.

It is very disturbing, and who needs that from a children’s movie?

I have blogged about my needlepoint elephants here, and I have a few other elephants at home:

Daughter #1's first needlepoint effort

I have elephants in my office:

I have actually touched an elephant. Flora, for whom the one-ring Circus was named, came to visit our church once long ago, when one of the Church Service ladies was on the board of directors of Circus Flora. Flora was still a baby then and came right into the Great Hall. She had long wiry black hair which was a surprise. Pretty neat.

Who doesn’t love elephants?