Elephants on Parade

I love elephants.  While I'll admit I have a tendency to anthropomorphize (I'm pretty sure that the recent research that argues that dogs do not feel guilt --and, moreover, do not have a "guilty look"-- was directed at me) there is something about elephants that is so human-like that I can't help but empathize with them.  There is something to be said for an animal that can and will actually die of loneliness and a species that mourns its dead.

During my travels both in Cambodia and in India, there were extensive tours offering tourists the chance to ride an elephant.  Though I love these animals, I have never participated in these as the elephants are often exploited.  Out of the developing world and onto Fifth Avenue, around this time each year, the circus elephants are paraded through the midtown tunnel to Madison Square Garden for their annual participation in the Barnum and Bailey Circus.  Again, while I romanticize the circus from films like Big Fish, I cannot ever seem to bring myself to watch the animal parade because of the immense sorrow I feel for the elephants.

I guess perhaps this love that I have for elephants is why I enjoyed (and teared through) the novel Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen. You'll have to read it soon if you want to get to it before the movie hits (April 22nd).  I promise you won't be disappointed.

I do hope one day to make it to The Elephant Nature Park in Thailand.  I would love to blow into the elephant's trunk to greet him or her in the traditional elephant way and also to partake in the bathing of an elephant! Until then...I'll just fall in love with Rosie (the elephant in the novel) and dream elephant dreams...