In my last post I talked about the solitary elephants and how they become “Cabby old men”. Now I want to tell you about one of these old guys.
On the second day of our Safari we saw a large elephant about 1,000 yards ahead of us. As we approached he left the road and when we caught up with him he was standing about 30 yards from us eating tall grass. Our guide told us that this was an old solitary elephant and was probably not going to be happy with us invading his territory and watching him.
Sure enough with in a few minutes of our arrival he stomped his foot, turned to us, and raised his ears until they were perpendicular to his body, much like a peacock might raise his tail feathers. This was a beautiful sight. His “mamouth’ size was exaggerated by his very large ears. After waving them at us a couple of times he positioned them again against his body but continued to stare at us. Long stems of grass clung to the corner of his mouth and he made no attempt to chew them or spit them out. He was looking at us with all the intensity that we were studying him.
Then as we watched he became sexually aroused. It’s not difficult to notice in a bull elephant; on the contrary, it is impossible for a bull elephant to hide his arousal! Then he turned to us, spread his ears again, stomped his left front foot and began an all out charge of our vehicle! My first thought was, I’m going to be battered and raped by an elephant!!!! I started to ask the guide to get the heck out of there, but before I could get the words out Mr. Elephant stopped in his tracts and turned is right side toward our truck. Apparently, our guide had seen this behavior before. He had his finger on the starter, but did not start the vehicle. “They usually stop the charge if we don’t move!” he said. I wondered if he knew what would happen if he didn’t stop!
As we watched the big bull “cool off” an unrelated thought shot into my head. Rape is an anger problem, not a sexual problem! Isn’t that what psychologists tell us? I knew that from my studies, but now I know it from a near experience. Still, many folks are hard to convince. And while I am not an elephant psychologist or a human psychologist, for that matter, I know the elephant’s intent was to hurt us, and that is exactly the goal of rapists!
I can not comment with a great deal of authority on the subject of rape, but I know many of the offenders are sad, lonely , and disenfranchised boys and men. I am convinced that rape, like many other anti-social crimes, can likely be prevented by proper parenting and by helping younger kids feel part of a community. Perhaps we can learn something from bull elephants.
So, next time you hear about a rape, think about the solitary elephant and make every effort to welcome your kids, your neighbor kids and all those other kids in your community into the neighborhood. Good parenting is the answer!