Author: delilalumbardy@gmail.com

A couple of years ago I watched a video come across Facebook of an elephant painting a picture. I was amazed by what this elephant named Suda could do. Some of the videos make it out that the elephant is painting whatever she wants to paint. However, other videos tell us that a trainer stands beside the elephant and gives it signals by pulling on its ear. If the trainer pulls the ear one way – that means “make a line to the left” or if he pulls it a different way, that means, “make a line to the right.”

Even though knowing that  these elephants are trained to paint pictures so that someone can make money, it still wet my appetite to learn more about this kind beast. And what I have found  is that elephants, whether they can paint pictures or not, are amazing animals. Scientists have been intensely studying and documenting their findings  in the last ten years and are finding that elephants are one of the brainiacs of the animal kingdom. The scientists have concluded that elephants are adept at using tools and they are cooperative problem solvers. They are highly empathetic creatures  – comforting each other and showing grief in times of loss of a family or clan member.

Kandula lives at the National Zoo in Washington D.C. In 2010 researchers set up some props to see what Kandula would do when favorite foods were strung high above the elephant’s reach. The researchers placed sticks and heavy duty block cubes around the yard. It wasn’t instantaneous, but within a few days Kandula had an “aha moment.” With his trunk he rolled the cubes beneath the strung food, climbed up onto the cube with his front feet, stretched out his long trunk, and enjoyed lunch. When the researchers changed out the cubes with tractor tires, Kandula was not detained, using the tires just as he did the cubes. He even figured out how to stack the cubes and tires to extend his reach.

In 1968, Cynthia Moss, director or the Amboseli Trust for Elephants, moved to Africa to study elephants in the Amboseli National Park – one of the few places where elephants can live a relatively undisturbed existence in natural conditions. One day while observing the animals Cynthia watched in amazement as a young, audacious female bound into the camp of a different clan and was kidnapped by that clan. They kept her captive with their trunks and strong legs. Her mother, Echo, and elder siblings took action to free her, but were unsuccessful, and they had no choice but to retreat. A few minutes later, Cynthia watched in awe as the mother and sisters returned with all the members of their clan. They charged into the enemy camp and rescued Ebony. Cynthia maintains that this took forethought, teamwork, and problem solving.

Not only are they problem solvers and team workers, they are also capable of genuine empathy. When coming upon an elephant skeleton, especially if it is one of their clan, they will caress the bones with their trunk and the bottoms of their sensitive, padded feet. Cynthia Moss has observed elephants kicking dirt over the skeletons and covering them with palm leaves. Elephants have never been seen doing this with the bones of other species.

In my way of thinking, elephants don’t need to paint to be impressive. Maybe God wanted us to see their greatness in more than just their size.

Until next week – if you keep on readin’, I’ll keep on writin’.

 

FYI – This week we are out of town for a family funeral. I will be posting my weekly blog today, but you will not see a weekly photo as my photo’s are home on my computer. (I am using my husband’s now.) I will be back next week with all the usual elements of my webpage.

This week we celebrated or scorned April Fool’s Day – depending on which end of the teeter-totter we were sitting.

I did some research on the history of April Fool’s Day and found that it doesn’t come in a tidy package with black and white wrapping. There are a lot of uncertainties of how it got started. It most likely began in France in the 16th century and became quite popular in many countries by the 19th century. It is not a public holiday in any country, but every country celebrates a form of April Fool’s Day although it may not be on April 1st. The one exception is China who did celebrate it in the past, but has recently banned the silly day – claiming it is not in line with  their “core values.”

Advocates for April Fools Day, sometimes  known as All Fool’s Day, claim the day is good for one’s health. It encourages light heartedness and laughter which decreases stress and reduces strain on the heart. Critics, on the other hand, adhere to the idea that hoaxes that are played can be creepy, manipulative, rude, and even a bit nasty.

Big corporations have been known to play jokes on April Fool’s Day. Google has been especially fond of a “good hoax.” In 2004 they announced the launch of Gmail with a one gigabyte inbox capacity. There competitor web services at the time were offering only four megabytes at the most.  (1000 megabytes equal one gigabyte.)

I’ve participated in a couple of good jokes over the years. When I was growing up on the ranch, my sister and I were up before my dad one April first. This was an unusual occurrence and we didn’t want to waste the opportunity to concoct some sort of a joke. So we thought of what might be our dad’s biggest nightmare. We yelled,” PRAIRIE FIRE!” We of course, were watching for the reaction. Our dad raised straight out of bed. I think it was  the first time we had seen our father in his underwear. He ran to the window and of course there was nothing but blue skies and waving prairie grasses. We yelled, “April Fool’s!!! And it all worked out well – he was soooo glad there wasn’t a fire, that he wasn’t too upset about the joke.

They say it’s always more fun to give than to receive and in the instance of April Fool’s jokes, that seems very applicable. I didn’t like it much when my son taped down the handle on the sprayer next to the kitchen sink.  I was ready to walk out the door to work when I decided I better have a drink of water first. I turned on the faucet and cold water drenched my hair, my face and my clothes. I had time only to change my clothes. I went to work with limp hair and no makeup.

If you have a practical joke – one you’ve done or had done to you – maybe you’d like to share it so we can be ready for next year’s April Fool’s Day.

Until next week – if you keep on readin’, I’ll keep on writin’.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There are those of us that feel that Christmas and Easter have become too commercialized, taking away the true meaning of the holidays. We wish there was more Christ Child than Santa, and more Christ arose than the Easter Bunny hopped. We would like to see both holidays celebrated with more spirituality and less folklore.

Maybe the two aren’t as far apart as we have always thought. Let’s look into the “real story” behind the Easter Bunny and the Easter eggs.

According to Wikipedia, the “Easter Hare” originated among German Lutherans.

In the medieval church, many of the Christian art works depicted a rabbit or hare in it. At this time it was believed by many people that the hare was a hermaphrodite – meaning it had sexual organs of both a male and a female. This idea led to the belief that a hare could reproduce without a loss of virginity and this led to an association of the hare with the Virgin Mary. It was common to see the hare along side the Virgin Mary in ancient Northern European paintings.

Orthodox churches observe a custom of abstaining from eggs during the fast of Lent. During this time, they boil or roast them so that the eggs are not wasted. At some point they began decorating the eggs as part of the celebration of the season. Later, German Protestants continued on with that custom of eating colored eggs for Easter. Before egg dyes arrived,  people would boil the eggs with certain flowers that would change the shell’s color.

Many Christians of the Eastern Orthodox Church still dye their Easter eggs red – the color of blood – to symbolize the blood of Christ. Some will also use green in honor of new life, as in the plants that spring up from the ground. And surely, we were all given a chance for new life when Christ went to the cross.

Easter has always been a favorite holiday of mine. As a child I loved hunting Easter eggs, finding baskets of candy at the foot of my bed, and dressing up for church in a new lacey dress with white gloves, hat, and shiny Mary Jane patent shoes. I was able to separate the folklore from the Christian concept and enjoy both aspects. Now with what I know,   instead of separating them, it seems that I could have combined the pieces of both.

As I have grown older; more mature in my faith, and a bit more cynical of the Easter Bunny and the colored eggs, I am relieved to discover the correlation between the two. Instead of scowling at the old rabbit, I will again smile. After all, he did bring me a lot of candy!

Until next week – if you keep on readin,’ I’ll keep on writin.’

 

 

One of my favorite resources in life is humor. I especially like to use it to cope with  frustrating events that sometimes appear out of nowhere . As a nurse for forty years I was occasionally called upon to deal with an egotistical doctor. Now, this can be very frustrating when you are trying to be an advocate for the patient and the doctor doesn’t seem to be on the same page. One of these events happened to me many years ago, but I can recall it quite clearly today. I handled that situation by stewing for the rest of the shift, then going home and pulling out my pen and paper. I dropped the poem in the mail to a magazine called  “Journal of Nursing Jocularity.” They accepted it and I felt tons better. I even came to think of it like this: the doc was gracious enough to give me some material so I could make a few extra bucks. The name of the doc in the following poem has been changed to protect the innocent. (FYI – the “Journal of Nursing Jocularity” was disbanded a few years after this article was printed when the entire staff (all nurses) were traveling together to a nursing conference and was involved in a fatal car wreck.)

Next time you have a frustrating day, try a little humor.

Until next week…if you’ll keep on readin,’ I’ll keep on writin.’

 

We can all use some inspiration from time to time. As a writer I often tire of letters that start out, “After careful review of the material you sent us, I am writing to inform you that it does not meet our editorial needs at this time.” I have yet to see a rejection letter that precedes the “happy dance.”

For those times when I know a rejection is a possibility, it helps me to think of someone that had their share of rejections, but didn’t give up. And because I am a writer, my inspiration comes from Dr. Seuss. It’s easy to think that someone that was so successful in his career, was always successful. Not so.  And to Think I Saw it on Mulberry Street, was rejected 27 times before a friend at Vanguard Press agreed to publish this first work by Dr. Seuss.

It’s not hard for me to understand how Theodore Seuss Geisel might have felt after each of those rejections letters. It must have been easy for him to think, maybe this isn’t as good as I thought it was. I’ve thought that after three rejections of the same work.  With great admiration, I applaud the fact that he  kept on keeping on. He didn’t quit until it had been accepted.

At the time of his death in 1991, Theodore had written and illustrated 44 children’s books. The one I personally owned was One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish. I loved that book with its bright yellow cover and personality rich fish. Maybe you had a favorite as well. Was it Green Eggs and Ham, The Cat in the Hat, Fox in Socks, or How the Grinch Stole Christmas? Or maybe it was one of the other 30 some books.

The Dr. Seuss books have been translated into over 15 languages. More than 200 million copies have found their way into the homes and hearts of children (and I’m betting adults too) around the world. Eleven children’s television specials have been produced from his work, not to mention a Broadway musical, and a feature length motion picture.

Two Academy awards, 2 Emmy awards, 1 Peabody award, and a Pulitzer prize sit atop Theodore Geisel’s mantle.

Maybe you’re not a writer, but there is no doubt there is someone out there that can be an inspiring example to you when you need it. I bet Dr. Seuss would allow you to claim him for your inspirations as well. The message would likely be the same from whomever you chose – don’t give up – keep on keeping on.

Until next time – keep on readin’ and I’ll keep on writin’.