My mother sent this one to me so I thought I'd share with youz.
When you're feeling down with the crumby news of what humans do to each
other, a story like this comes along.....
In 1987, Mkele Mbembe was on holiday in Kenya after graduating from
college. On a hike through the bush, he came across a young bull elephant standing with
one leg raised in the air. The elephant seemed distressed so Mbembe approached it
very carefully. He got down on one knee and inspected the elephant's foot,
and found a large thorn deeply embedded in it.
As carefully and as gently as he could, Mbembe worked the thorn out with his
hunting knife, after which the elephant gingerly put down its foot.
The elephant turned to face the man and with a rather stern look on its
face, stared at him. For several tense moments Mbembe stood frozen, thinking of
nothing else but being trampled. Eventually the elephant trumpeted loudly,
turned and walked away.
Mbembe never forgot that elephant or the events of that day.
Twenty years later he was walking through a zoo with his teenaged son. As
they approached the elephant enclosure, one of the creatures turned and walked
over to near where Mbembe and his son Tapu were standing.
The large bull elephant stared at Mbembe and lifted its front foot off the
ground, then put it down. The elephant did that several times then trumpeted
loudly, all the while staring at the man.
Remembering the encounter in 1987, Mbembe couldn't help wondering if this
was the same elephant. Mbembe summoned up his courage, climbed over the railing
and made his way into the enclosure. He walked right up to the elephant and
stared back in wonder.
Suddenly the elephant trumpeted again, wrapped its trunk around one of the
man's legs and swung him wildly back and forth along the railing, killing him.
Probably wasn't the same elephant
Blessed are the flexible, for they shall not be bent out of shape.
