Four elephants were playing in the water. The two older ones were out in the deep part of the river telling jokes to each other, and the two young ones were close to the shore spraying and splashing water on each other. After the initial excitement wore off, the two out in the deep water called for the young ones to come out and swim with them. The young ones usually shied away from the deep water, but since they were having such a good time they didn’t think twice about it. They took up running and splashing until their feet couldn’t touch the bottom anymore. As they felt their bodies lift off the riverbed they could also feel all of their problems and worries lift from their minds. It was rejuvenating; they felt weightless in body and spirit. They went to the older elephants and quietly listened as one of them was telling a story. When the story ended, they all roared so loud with laughter that the nearby trees exploded with birds taking to the skies. They were as carefree as any being on this earth could be. Yet, it was just yesterday they were informed that they had nothing but problems.

You must be asking yourself what problems an elephant could possibly have aside from the usual means of survival.  Well, as it turns out they didn’t know either; they were sure they had none. They never searched themselves for any problems they may have, and they never went out looking for any that they could work on.  They enjoyed their lives with a contentment that one in our world can only dream of. Life is life for an elephant and it needs no improvement. The idea of improvement itself was foreign to them. There was no need for it when their days brought endless comfort and everything worked out just as it should. They lived in blissful ignorance and endless contentment until a messenger brought them the news of all their troubles.

The elephants were in the middle of a two-day journey from one watering hole to the next. They had appearances to keep up and news to deliver from the animals at the last watering hole who didn’t have the means to travel. Elephants covered a lot of ground and were renowned for their memories. This made them the perfect messengers in the animal world. The animals were grateful and the elephants loved the attention.

On the first night of their journey they were deep in the gossip of the other animals and looking for a place to build a fire and set up camp. As they searched for the right spot they smelled smoke and looked off to see that a fire had already been built. They decided to investigate and it was then that they came up on a man named Everett.

Everett was a man in his late forties. He had the appearance of a vagabond that once lived in a ballroom and hadn’t changed his clothes since. His head was covered by a scrunched top hat, his face framed by bushy sideburns, and the rest of his body was adorned by a tattered tuxedo with red stripes down the arms and legs. He rose to the elephants, but put most of his weight on a cane.

“Hi there, welcome. Welcome to Everett Outpost.”

At this the elephants all looked at each other. This was no outpost; they know of every outpost along this path. They travel this same route regularly throughout the year – the only landmarks in this area were the two watering holes that they were traveling between.

“This is no outpost, who are you? What do you mean by trying to tell us this is an outpost? Why, it’s just you and a fire.”

“I’m Everett, of course. And no, sadly, this is not much of an outpost. I’ve only just made it here myself. Will you be spending the night?”

“We must, it is already late. And since you’ve already got a fire going we might as well. We’ll send the young ones out to knock down a few trees to keep it going.”

“You are too kind. Please sit, and I’ll tell you my business.”

“What business does a man have in the middle of nowhere?”

“Well I used to work at a circus.”

At this the elephants all leapt up and let out a surprised trumpeting.

“No, no, please don’t be alarmed. I was a consultant. I worked for the animals. I had no association with the circus itself. I only worked at them, not with them.”

“How is that possible? You’re dressed like one of them.”, burst one of the elephants.

“I promise you these are not my clothes. I had to steal them. I was kicked out of a traveling circus that made its way not too far from here. They found out what I was up to and left me behind. I had to take what I could and run off or face imprisonment. You have no idea what it’s like to answer to Circus Law. I have a much better chance out here.”

The elephants knew of a circus nearby, it was the topic of nearly half of the messages from the other animals at the other watering hole. They knew of the brutality of circus law, as well. So, they calmed a little and sat as they queried the man some more.

“What were you up to? Why would they kick you out?”

“I was trying to help the animals prepare for what was to come after the circus. I was trying to help them save for the future, to help them retire. The circus doesn’t like the animals thinking of a life outside their tents, and they threw me out.”

“Retire?” all the elephants asked in unison. “What is that?”

The elephants had no idea what the concept of retirement was, and the idea as explained by this strange man invoked quite a stir among them. They had never thought about any other stages of their lives other than the present and listened with great concern as he spoke. He told them they needed a nice, cozy, comfortable spot far away from the Serengeti where an elephant could enjoy a nice walk without the risk of being mauled by lions. He told them all about how they needed a good place to raise young elephants and watch their grandchildren grow up. He explained the location of natural springs, global warming, and where the best grass was. He told them they needed to prepare for life 20 or 30 years down the road.

As you can imagine this caused quite a commotion within their group. They had never heard of such a premise and here they were – completely unprepared. They hadn’t put a single thing away for retirement. Among the elephants these revelations were met with commotion and worry, but the man assured them that with every problem they had he could match it with a solution. He sat them down and talked to them about achieving a better life until the fire was down to the last embers.

How was an elephant to know all this? They never thought about it before – they just walked to where the water was when they were thirsty. They found the tallest juiciest grass when they were hungry. They found the softest dirt when they were sleepy and the shadiest trees when the sun was too much. Everything worked out as it should in their lives up to this point.

At the end of his speech the elephants concluded that they do have many problems. Problems they didn’t know they had, and future problems that needed planning. It was with worry on their minds that they grew tired and decided to sleep where they were instead of finding a nice spot for the evening. They had no time to find the softest dirt under the shadiest tree next to the juiciest grass. They were thrown off their whole routine and slept on stones that stabbed at them all night.

It was during the sleepless night that the oldest elephant heard a noise that had confirmed his suspicions about the man. In the last shadows of the dying fire the man’s shoulders were bobbing up and down as he cried. The elephant walked over to the man and sat down next to him. Spread out in front of the man was a pile of papers made up of bills, taxes, mortgage statements and letters from people telling the man what he needs to do with his life. They were so overwhelming that even the elephant had to sit down in their presence.

“What is all this, Everette? Why do you tell us with confidence how to fix our problems and yet you cry in the night instead of sleeping?”

“This… This is my life.”

“Your life? A pile of papers? Papers with powers enough to make you cry?”

“You don’t understand, you’re an elephant. My whole life has been a tragedy. I’ve spent my whole life thinking about the future. I’ve chased it for so long that now the past that I’ve missed out on calls to beckon me. I have debts in the past and nothing but obligations for the future. The present is filled with accountability. I cannot rest.”

“Why have you let these papers control you? Why can’t you just be?”

“Its not that easy. I have hopes and dreams, or at least I did. I wanted a life other than my own. I would give anything now for everything to go away and to just be.”

“A life other than your own? How is that even possible? Your life is catered to you, your life is the most suitable condition to experience this world in. From it you will find the answers to everything within you. A life other than your own? It would be like walking around in someone else’s skin. You would never find comfort.”

The man’s tears had dried at this point. The act of crying and letting his emotions flow freely had shed the layers of self-pride and skepticism. He heart was open and he was able to receive what the elephant was saying purely and without it being filtered by his character. After a bit of silence and clarity he spoke, “Yes, but… the others.”

“The others? What of them?”

“The others; I see their lives and my heart is filled with longing. I want to be like them, I want what they have – their happiness. They tell me and show me how I should achieve it, and I strive to do so, but it never comes to me.”

“I just told you; another’s life would not suit you – It would not be right. Those people are happy with their lives because they are living their lives. You could have everything they have and it would not make you happy. They may not even be truly happy, you may just be perceiving it that way –  unhappy people project lies. You appeared to us as a happy person and now you sit here crying in the dark. You tell us we have worries and need to plan for them, but how has that worked out for you? We are happiest as we are, not as others would like us to be.”

The elephant felt sorry for this weak man in the dark, “Human, my best advice to you is to forget this notion of the others. Live your life and find happiness within it. Don’t compare it to others. Does an elephant grow jealous of the birds because they can fly? What would happen if I spent my whole life in the pursuit of wings? Even worse, what would happen if I were to obtain those wings?  The largest wings of imagination could not lift me of the ground, and even if they did I would not be happy. The dirt under my feet and water in my trunk makes me happy, whether I know it or not. Flying seems exciting when you see someone else doing it, but wings would only carry an elephant away from the things that truly make it happy.”

With that the elephant left and tried to rest until the morning light. The man sat in serious contemplation. He felt somewhat grounded, and it felt comforting. He had an urge to prolong this feeling as long as possible as he thought about the others. He thought about them and the things that made him envious. In his mind, he attached wings to all these feelings. Some wings he attached to his feelings of envy and let them fly far away from his heart, other wings he attached to what he thought would make him happy and knew that if they grabbed a hold of him they would take him far from himself and make him miserable. As he saw his wants and desires from this angle he began to take comfort in himself, and on this cloud of comfort he drifted to sleep.

When the man woke to the warmth of the sun the elephants were gone. With his worries winged and flying away he had slept as though he hadn’t slept for ages. He looked down at the pile of papers, and thought about the circumstances they put on his life. For the first time when he looked at them he did not feel an overwhelming sense of panic. He saw them as physical pieces of paper with no real control on his present being. The debts would be payed as they could be, but they couldn’t actually touch him. And as for all the notes and plans for the future, he did not see them with his life attached to them. He picked up the papers with his debts, packed them away for a time when he could deal with them. He then turned his back to the worries and desires of the future and walked away.

As he walked he thought about his life. He thought about what it meant to be happy with himself and how he would learn to embrace it. He was lost in happy thought and walking in no real direction until he came to the river. He heard splashing and laughter; he looked towards the source from where it came and could see the elephants in the distance. It was just last night that he tried to convince them of a world of troubles and here they were enjoying life without a care in the world. He thought of the words of the elephant last night and knew that the worries he tried to instill in the them had already been forgotten; that they were living in the moment as happy as could be. He watched the elephants floating in the water and thought of them flying with wings on. Wings would be ridiculous on an elephant, yet here they were as weightless as if they were flying. They were as happy as if they could fly, but enjoying it within their realm. He looked at them in their joy and thought to himself how he would try to find happiness even it he didn’t truly know its source. He thought how he would live every day as a swimming elephant.