Can We Pet the Elephant?

"Mommy, look! There's an elephant over there!" The mother quickly tried to hush her wonder-filled child. "Shhh, be still. Don't stare." The child could not help but stare at the massive elephant that he saw. Try as he might, he could not contain himself and again said to his mother, "Mommy, can we pet the elephant?" His mother quickly looked around and bent down to whisper to her child, "No, we musn't pet the elephant. Be still. Not another word."

As the child's mother began talking with others around her the child began to wander around the room. He never took his eyes off of the elephant. He wanted so much to go over and pet it. As he walked around he saw another adult that he knew. He thought a moment and quickly went over after one quick glance at his mother. She was engrossed in her chat and did not seem to notice.

He approached the other adult and tugged on his sleeve. The adult looked down, smiled and asked what the child needed. The child quickly pointed to the corner of the room where the elephant stood. "Can you take me over there to pet the elephant?" The adult's smile faded and a puzzled look came upon his face. "What elephant?" he asked. "I don't see any elephant."

The child scratched his head and looked at the adult as if to say, "How can you NOT see the elephant?" However, the child walked away. As he looked around the room he began to notice that everyone was talking to each other but no one was looking at the massive elephant standing now in the middle of the room. In fact, the more he looked at their faces the more it seemed that everyone was purposely not seeing the elephant.

The child did not understand this. He could not figure out why no one wanted to look at the elephant. A couple of other children came into the room and the first child watched as their eyes got big and they each exclaimed to their parents about the elelphant in the room. He saw his friends get hushed just as he had been by his mother.

The other children came over to him and asked if he saw the elephant. He told them that he did and then he told them how everyone else seemed like they were refusing to see the elephant. The children could not figure out why the adults were acting so bizarre. Why didn't anyone want to talk about the elephant in the room?