Elephant Sighting

Before getting slammed with the May paperwork deal I was really enjoying a book called, "Hey Mom, Can I Ride My Bike Across America." It's a completely charming account of a cross-country tour a middle school teacher and his wife completed with 5 of his students (3 boys, 2 girls) during the summer of '86. I've been eating up books of this genre as I mentally prepare for the trip I hope to make in the summer of '14 (my 40th summer.) The best thing I can do at this point is soak up other people's experiences...so I am!

With everything done, I was able to finish my read this week but it's just one of those books I wish had never ended. Endearing, heartwarming and as sweet as can be, I just wanted to keep riding with those great kids and their inspiring teachers. God, if I had been in Santa Barbara at the time, I might have been in this class on wheels.

From every bike story I usually glean some nuggets. From this one I gathered at least two:

Often in camp at night the kids used to play a game called 'Bright Side' where someone would make mention of a difficult aspect of the journey and the rest would take turns describing the inevitable bright side to the story. For every difficulty encountered this group collectively looked for the positive outcomes to be appreciated when it could have been so easy just to bitch about what went wrong. Instead they looked for the magic of the situation.

I also learned a neat pioneer expression. One of the objectives of the journey was to study the culture of the pioneers that migrated across the country in the 1800's. The class read pioneer journals and closely followed a described route. (What a class!) So when the pioneers were discouraged by weather, disaster, homesickness, many to the point of turning back, they called it, 'Seeing the elephant.'

The expression predated the gold rush, arising from a tale current when circus parades first featured elephants. A farmer, so the story went, hearing that a circus was in town, loaded his wagon with vegetables for the market there. He had never seen an elephant and very much wished to. On the way to town he encountered the circus parade, led by an elephant. The farmer was thrilled. His horses, however, were terrified. Bolting, they overturned the wagon and ruined the vegetables. "I don't give a hang," the farmer said, "for I have seen the elephant."