A long, long time ago, before i-phones and pay-at-the-pump gas stations, there lived an old man whose wisdom was greatly celebrated. Young people traveled long distances just to sit at his feet in hopes of absorbing his knowledge. The old man did not talk much, a tendency that came to frustrate one student in particular, who finally blurted out, "Tell us what the world is like, old man!" The old man only giggled, which further antagonized the fresh student.
Patient and loving as he was, the old man blind-folded the students and led them through the jungle until they came upon an elephant. "This the world is like, you tell me." Then, one by one, the students began to speak: A girl standing nearest the elephant's tusk said, "It is smooth and hard...it curves steadily into a dangerous point." A boy standing adjacent to one of the legs said, "No, it stands tall and inflexible, like an oak tree, but, of leather." Another boy, petite in stature, had somehow made his way under the elephant's belly, and not knowing the danger to which he was vulnerable said, "I believe there is nothing to it!" Then the sister of that girl who stood nearest the tusk (for those girls knew to stay close together) let fly an aching falsetto that made skip two beats every heart within each of the now-terrified, blind-folded students. The elephant had wound it's thick trunk around the girl's small frame making a seat for her in its coiling embrace, then lifted her up, up...up into the air. But in mid-ascent her scream began to descend into a deep baritone, for the journey had exhausted her fear, and her abdomen grew purposeful and began to squeeze the very core of her being until finally the only sound left was of butterflies fluttering from the basement of her belly and across her surprised lips.Then, silence came to rein their jungle scene. A wide smile crossed the girl's face as she sat hovering graciously in mid-air. The other students, however, stood blind-folded with puzzled expressions on their faces: How would they ever deduce an answer from so many conflicting descriptions?
