Elephant Talks to God Read Online Free PDF Page B

hunt for the truth.” The elephant stared at the cloud. “And we all want love. We want to give it. We want to get it.” The elephant stamped a massive foot. “At the end of these persistent quests, we are not supposed to be comfortable?”
    â€œComfort has its place.” The cloud rumbled. “But, if your life becomes comfortable; you are not learning. And if you are not achieving a new understanding of the life around you — the life inside you — then you are not really living.”
    â€œThat would keep me in a constant state of flux.”
    â€œYes,” answered God. “Just as are the world and the universe around you.” The cloud darkened slightly. “If you haven’t noticed, the only things which are static are dead.”
    â€œMore power to them,” said the annoyed elephant.
    â€œFrom my point of view, I couldn’t agree more,” said God. “But from your standpoint, I would suggest that your opinion is both inaccurate and unwise.”
    â€œPerhaps hasty,” conceded the elephant.
    â€œPerhaps hasty,” modified God. “A trait of yours which does you both ill and good.” The cloud chuckled. “As I know only too well.”
    â€œMe too.”
    The elephant turned his gaze back to the grassland. He stared for such a long time that he felt he could count the waving grass blade by blade. He wondered if he would reach numbers which actually did not have names.
    It was in the midst of these musings that he snorted, raised his head abruptly, and trumpeted in a surprised manner.
    â€œYes?” asked God.
    â€œIf I’m a speck then so are they.”
    â€œIf you wish to view things in that manner — then yes.”
    â€œBy which, I suppose you mean, that if they are all specks then none of them are specks.”
    â€œYes again,” agreed God.
    â€œMy size doesn’t matter.”
    â€œPerhaps, if you spruced up on the theory of relativity,” suggested God.
    â€œThe grasses and I still have something in common.”
    â€œIn the eyes of God,” said God, “all are equal.”
    â€œSo, at worst, I’m out of place.”
    â€œYou eat grass, don’t you?”
    â€œYes.”
    â€œThen you are hardly out of place.”
    â€œAnd talking to you,” the elephant winked, “can make a fella hungry.”
    â€œFor all those who hunger and thirst, I am here.” The cloud started to rise into the sky. “Bon appetit.”

Change of Environment
    The elephant wondered what it would be like to live in the city.
    He had seen some films at the Mission showing various cities, and he found them fascinating. He thought of the gigantic buildings as towering trees, the streets as comfortable pathways, the multi-lighted nightscape as the starriest of skies. However, he thought that automobiles were probably very stupid creatures. And, without any doubt, there were too many humans.
    He had heard many strange stories from the birds, who, by and large, tried to avoid flying over the city.
    Because birds and elephants see things differently, he wasn’t quite sure about the distance he would have to travel to reach the city. To hear the birds tell it (and he thought they might be boasting), they could go as far between sunrise and sunset as he could in half the cycle of the moon.
    That was why he was deep in conversation with the toucan, who was perched a bit precariously on the elephant’s right shoulder. But the toucan was not much help, for he was in no way fond of travel himself.
    The elephant pointed out (unfortunately using the tip of his trunk, which made the toucan scramble further up his back) that toucans were not even supposed to be on the continent, so travel must be in his blood. The toucan replied that a flock of his ancestors had been caught in a hurricane and unceremoniously shuffled over the Romanche Fracture Zone at the Equator. And, although this