So it turns out, Sunday September 22 was International Elephant Appreciation Day. I already had the Madeleine L'Engle post queued for the first day of banned books week, so I kinda missed it, but not in real life.
In real life, we went to see the ELEPHANTS!!!!! First I had no idea there was an elephant sanctuary just one town over & I had no idea that they pretty much only open to the public on Elephant Appreciation Day & I found this out the Friday before so:
So on Elephant Appreciation Day I was indeed, appreciating elephants. Not since the baby elephant followed the mama elephant into the water feature at the Jacksonville Zoo & then stood there, under water with his baby elephant trunk sticking out like a periscope have I been so elephantly appreciative.
The event itself was...meager. The elephants were wonderful, as were the elephant people but the promotion had been slim (also it was drizzly) so there was no crowd. This was good for us but not great for them. One of the elephant people told us they opened for Elephant Appreciation Day for the first time last year, expecting 500 people they got 1,500. This year they maybe could have managed 1,500 but I doubt they got 500. Just as well because the volunteers in charge of parking nearly caused two accidents while we ere pulling in. Considering we were the only people pulling in & only two other vehicles were in motion, this was impressive in its own way.
Yes, we went to see the elephant(s), in the rain, still worth it. Also the whole wind-up reminded me of a book from last year's bookclub: Stewart O'Nan's A Prayer for the Dying. His narrator talks about "seeing the elephant". & wholly unrelated to elephants is himself confronted with what he believes is his duty to his fellow men & his god, & what happens when these responsibilities meet mother nature. Good book.
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