I think it's time we discussed the elephant in the room...

 

 Dear Reader,

    Okay. This may seem rather confusing, maybe even a little bit ridiculous but I'm sure there is that one thing you may pretend isn't there in your life. That one thing that is there, is large, gargantuan, a problem perhaps, but you ignore it. You ignore it and maybe even place rose-tinted glasses on so you do not see the elephant... in your own life. It could be a small elephant, Dumbo-sized, maybe even Tantor-sized who knows, all I know is that I am aware of that elephant in the room known as your life. After all, everyone has one. You may call your elephant Anxiety, Depression, maybe even Mr. Elephant of Gerascophobia - the fear of growing up, but all in all even if you aren't even aware of it, everyone has their own elephant. 

   But why an elephant? Why do we call our problems elephants?

   You'd probably stop me right here and say we call them elephants because of their size. That our problems are large and conspicuous things we despise and pretend aren't there so we live our lives sane. Well, you are right in saying that, though there is a more story-like reason why.

   According to a source, the idiom of our good ol' elephant friend dates back to the mid-19th century where Ivan Andreevich Krylov, a Russian fabulist (a writer of fables), wrote a fable in 1814 called The Inquisitive Man in which a man goes to a museum and notices all sorts of tiny things but fails to notice an elephant. A century later, the tale of the elephant was transformed into an idiom and mentioned in a 1935 book by American author George Bernard Shaw, The Music Cure, where he writes: "Have you ever observed that there are people who will talk about anything and everything except the elephant in the room?"

   So, with that little history dump and this impending question, what exactly is so interesting about the elephant? Why do we resonate so much with the elephant as a metaphor for our problems? Why not a shark? An orca? Why not a giraffe or dinosaur? Good question, perhaps it is due to its majestic nature, maybe it is because elephants are more culturally-resonant around the world. After all, in continents like Asia and Africa they are revered and symbolize strength, wisdom, and longevity. I'd also like to think that elephants were chosen from all the other creatures in the world is because they were already being used in other idioms such as the term "white elephant". This idiom originates from Southeast Asian cultures, where white elephants were considered sacred and were often given as gifts to kings. However, maintaining a white elephant was extremely costly, and thus the term came to refer to a possession that is more trouble than it is worth. Hence, a white elephant is rather burdensome to look after, once again reflecting the idiom's meaning in today's world: as a nuisance. Another idiom including an elephant may be "blue elephant", which symbolises something as unique, royal, special and rare. 

   This is rather contradictory I know, a creature being a representation of a nuisance while also being something majestic and unique. The perfect paradox. However, I like to think this parallelism is similar to our own amok lives. This is because chaos can be seen as something beautiful, our pandemonium and confusion contrasts against the rules of the natural order, making every day a diverse ocean of possibilities. A kaleidoscope of colours. 

   But this is besides the point.

   The point is although our elephants are different, although we have our own problems and fears it's interesting to look at this from another perspective. In life, we tend to see our elephants as barricades, divisions between us and the outside world... but maybe they can be seen as a form of unity. The same creature uniting us together via our own individual problems. 

   If you asked me to think of an elephant, I'd think of Dumbo (like any Disney-aficionado) who  befriended a mouse. It's funny because in reality, there is a myth that elephants are in truth, afraid of mice. So this got me thinking: if the representation of our own fears is afraid of something so minute and irrelevant, why are we even afraid of the elephant? What is that thing that makes our elephant a nuisance? Could we perceive things differently? Could we look at the elephant with a fresh new lens? Could we find a way to see it for what it really is? I'm not saying we need to personify our problems but maybe with this analogy we could find a way to cope with our elephants. Maybe we could perceive it as the gift of human life. A problem we need to address and solve. A challenge we need to overcome and win against. Maybe with this new knowledge we could start to look at the elephant as a friend in need rather than a burden we need to deal with. We could look at our problem, at our elephant, and befriend it similar to how Dumbo befriended his mouse and initial fear, Timothy Q. 

   Maybe just maybe we could make friends with the elephant in the room. After all, it was Timothy Q. who taught Dumbo how to fly. 

Yours,

Pearl's Odyssey (2025) All rights reserved ©