So the elephants march... [reflection] [Greek translation]

A curious fact about elephants is this:

In order to survive, they mustn't fall down.

Every other animal can stumble and get back

up again. But an elephant always stands up,

even to sleep. If one of the herd slips and falls,

it is helpless. It lies on its side, a prisoner of its

own weight. Although the other elephants will

press close around it in distress and try to lift it

up again, there isn't usually much they can do.

With slow heaving breaths, the fallen elephant

dies. The others stand vigil, then slowly move on.

This is what I learned from nature books, but

I wonder if they are right. Isn't there another

reason why elephants can't fall down? Perhaps

they have decided not to. Not to fall down is

their mission. As the wisest and most patient

of the animals, they made a pact.

I imagine it was eons ago, when the ice ages

were ending. Moving in great herds across the

face of the earth, the elephants first spied tiny

men prowling the tall grasses with their flint spears.

"What fear and anger this creature has," the

elephants thought. "But he is going to inherit

the earth. We are wise enough to see that.

Let us set an example for him."

Then the elephants put their grizzled heads together and

pondered. What kind of example could they show to man?

They could show him that their power was much greater

that his, for that was certainly true. They could display

their anger before him, which was terrible enough to

uproot whole forests. Or they could lord it over man

through fear, trampling his fields and crushing his huts.

In moments of great frustration, wild elephants will do all

of these things, but as a group, putting their heads together,

they decided that man would learn best from a kinder

message. "Let us show him our reverence for life," they said.

And from that day on, elephants have been silent, patient,

peaceful creatures. They let men ride them and harness

them like slaves. They permit children to laugh at their

tricks in the circus, exiled from the great African plains

where they once lived as lords. But the elephants' most

important message is in their movement. For they know

that to live is to move. Dawn after dawn, age after age,

the herds march on, one great mass of life that never falls

down, an unstoppable force of peace. Innocent animals,

they do not suspect that after all this time, they will fall

from a bullet by the thousands. They will lie in the dust,

mutilated by our shameless greed.

The great males fall first, so that their tusks can be made

into trinkets. Then the females fall, so that men may have

trophies. The babies run screaming from the smell of their

own mothers' blood, but it does them no good to run

from the guns. Silently, with no one to nurse them, they

will die, too, and all their bones bleach in the sun. In the

midst of so much death, the elephants could just give up.

All they have to do is drop to the ground. That is enough.

They don't need a bullet: Nature has given them the dignity

to lie down and find their rest. But they remember their

ancient pact and their pledge to us, which is sacred.

So the elephants march on, and every tread beats out

words in the dust: "Watch, learn, love. Watch, learn, love.

" Can you hear them? One day in shame, the ghosts of ten

thousand lords of the plains will say, "We do not hate you.

Don't you see at last? We were willing to fall, so that you,

dear small ones, will never fall again."

• Artist:Michael Jackson
• Album:Dancing the dream