THE ELEPHANT IN OUR LIVING ROOM: A Metaphor

PANDEMIC WRITINGS, Melbourne, Australia (2020-2022): piece originally published September 22, 2020

Something absolutely magnificent and undeniably powerful is currently locked inside. 

Residing in each, and every Victorian household, standing central in the living room, yet deftly stepped around and largely ignored by the occupants, a once tremendous and mighty creature, now reduced to insignificance, patiently waits. Chains connect large shackles fastened to each columnar limb, restricting movement to the confines of the immediate space. It sways occasionally, massive ears largely immobile and hanging heavy, tail uninspired and motionless. It is miserable, but it obeys and remains submissive. It knows this is for its own good. Once formidable tusks have been sawn and blunted as per government regulations, and the dextrous and animated trunk, once trumpeting a triumphant bellow, has been silenced and purposely stuffed with material to prevent the potential of a mouse entering and scurrying up inside. Elephants fear mice the most. The government has mandated “masking” of all elephant trunks — it is the only way to zero cases of deadly “mousing.” 

The thought of “mousing” is terrifying. Trunks are especially vulnerable to invasion by mice and the suffocation that results. The whole herd is at considerable risk, and everyone is informed and updated daily of the continuous tragedy of the Elephant Graveyard Crisis. Many elderly elephants, mostly sick and lame, having reached advanced years even for an elephant, have finally died, and their deaths are assumed to be cases of “mouse suffocation,” but possibly not, but all precautions must be taken. The numbers are tallied daily, and all are routinely informed that the tiny vermin are taking their toll. 

There are many mice outside the house, a veritable plague it has been suggested; the data and science are persuasive and repeated, but none have seen any mice, and yet, none can be too careful. The mice are certainly amongst us! Apparently, these mice do not discriminate; they are wicked and extremely deadly, and could just as likely suffocate a calf, as a mature healthy bull elephant. All elephants must be quarantined; every household obeys and subjects their elephant to these necessary psychological and physical abuses. They are all in this together. 

The elephant’s essential nature and rich social interactions must be repressed. Sunlight is largely denied, and exercise is limited and potentially dangerous, especially if out, and in the vicinity of a neighbouring elephant that might not be suitably “trunk-masked”. If the mice remain unaware that the elephants are contained and protected within, they will not find a way to get inside and invade their vulnerable trunks — so the elephants must be kept silent, mostly hidden and almost invisible for most of the day. The government has decreed such measures, and these colossal beasts must remain segregated from their herd, largely confined indoors, fettered for their own good, and obedient. They will be whipped mercilessly if found unmasked, and goaded aggressively with a bullhook if they wander too far, or for too long when unshackled. That is the law.

Desiring to be free, acting as such, and defiantly breathing freely through a trunk that might be assailed by a dangerous mouse at any moment, is absolutely forbidden. One free-moving and free-breathing elephant will surely attract more mice. It is the sound of joyous trumpeting that attracts them — these majestic giants should not celebrate life. It could be the death of them. The vicious whipping and constant discipline keep the greater herd safe, for one mouse in a trunk, could mean more mice in many trunks, and many deaths by suffocation. 

These elephants are in each and every Victorian household, standing central in the living room. They are largely ignored, and often not even spoken about, for to do so is to acknowledge exactly what the elephant might mean to the occupants of each house — the elephant is the inner knowing of the terrible truth, and an acute awareness of a deliberate numbing of conscience to avoid this truth. 

It is time to talk about the elephant in the room, how it got there, why it is currently in the state that it is in, and how we are going to set it free. 

We owe it to our elephant — our soul.