Water For Elephants... Elephants in Water

Heeelloooooo Robert!

It seems like forever since we've had one of my imagined conversations chatted! Did I mention how much I enjoyed the Vanity Fair article last year? or Remember Me? and DETAILS! Did I tell you how much I loved the interview in DETAILS?

I didn't?

In summary, let's just say, that if I allow myself to wonder about what it would be like to meet you, I don't wonder about you finding me attractive⎼I worry about you finding me boring⎼and, if I had to choose a favourite part, I'd say I really loved hearing about your day with the elephants.

(excerpts from DETAILS Mar'10)

JL: He tells me an elephant story. Not the one about Barcelona elephants—one about some he'd met recently in California.

RP: "Did you know elephants purr? It's completely scary if you don't know what it is. They purr like cats, but their heads are so deep they sound like velociraptors. You feel it in the ground under your feet. So this big female started sniffing my foot—big female elephant, that is. She sniffed it so hard it came up off the pavement like her trunk was a vacuum cleaner. Then she took my entire body in her mouth. I was holding on to her head, and as I slowly let go she tightened her grip really carefully until I'm just upside down in her mouth and she's going through my pockets with her trunk, looking for peppermints. It was the best day of my life."

JL: So you gave up control to an elephant, got groped, mugged, had your candy tugged at—and it was glorious?

RP: "Yeah. So beautiful you can't imagine. And the baby elephant was so excited that it sprinted out and did its routine in five seconds and then curtsied to everybody. It was actually laughing. Brilliant. Did you know they can also do imitations of other animals? A horse, a chicken, a monkey—these elephants could, anyway. They were movie elephants. One had written a screenplay, and one really wants to direct."

RP: "Do you know how they die? The elephant guy told me their molars get ground down from eating wood but regenerate like six times. And after that they slowly starve to death. Which is poignant, but that must also be what gives them time to get to the elephant graveyard. They're incredibly designed creatures. I mean, people hang on way too fucking long. If I knew that when my teeth fell out, that was it . . . Wow. The best day of my life. Beautiful, beautiful day."

❧ ❧ ❧

I love that you've had this experience. I've had my own close encounter of the elephant kind, so I can imagine what it must've been like for you.

One morning, I came upon a young calf with her mahout on a beach in Thailand. It was difficult to describe how I felt afterwards⎼sometimes feelings have no words attached to them... Sometimes a picture is worth a thousand words.

In she goes!

In we both go...

How can something so heavy be so buoyant?

Is she frolicking? Why yes, she is!

Holy shizz! Should I move?

Proof that elephants smile

The victory trumpet!

The entire morning was a gift that I'll never forget.

The following photo's by Canadian artist, Gregory Colbert will leave you speechless ... Utterly.

Enjoy.

Gregory Colbert at work.

*From his website: "The photographic artworks of Gregory Colbert explore the poetic sensibilities of animals in their natural habitat as they interact with human beings. No longer shown as merely a member of the family of man, humans are seen as a member of the family of animals. None of the images have been digitally collaged."

For more information, go HERE. Please also check out his film, 'Ashes and Snow'.

With too much love to put it into words,

Tess