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I have a snapshot -- a Polaroid -- of an elephant. I collect elephants. They are my power animal. They are very big -- they have a presence -- and they are very strong, intelligent, resourceful, and for the most part mellow. But when seriously provoked or in times of necessity, they are fierce and destructive. Unstoppable.
So, I have a large elephant collection. Probably in the range of forty to fifty these days.... I have figures, jewelry, novelties (erasers, watering cans, candles, just a whole grouping of less typical things), I have art work, and Christmas ornaments. Lots of things. And someday, when I have my own house, I will have elephants all around me! In the living room, the bathroom, the bedroom, the dinning room! Probably even in the kitchen. And somewhere in all of that... there will be a little, dirty Polaroid picture of an elephant.
An elephant from a carnival or a circus of some sort... with two people on in -- a mother and her little son. I found it in a parking lot. I found a memory from somebody else's life. A snapshot of a moment in their life that they may have cherished, or loved, or thought was something very fun and special. But then their memory got blown out of the car door or window, or it flew out of a book.. maybe fell out of a purse. And, well, maybe they don't remember it anymore. Because they don't have that photograph to remember it by. But it's not a memory that goes un-cherished. I love that picture. Two, happy mother and son, at a carnival got to ride the elephant and get their picture taken. I put it up at my desk as if it were my own memory. Maybe someday I'll even have my own picture of me on an elephant to put next to it.
I love having those little peaks, those snapshots into other people's lives every now and then. It gives me perspective on the universe. I think it's the same reason why I like garage sales. I find it especially funny when I find something at a garage sale that matches something I've had in my house. Usually it's a dish pattern on a plate or a bowl, sometimes it's the same cookie can... I love knowing that these things that are so familiar to me in my childhood were so familiar to someone else. Once at a garage sale, (and this may be my greatest regret!), I saw a small framed photograph of a close-up of about four or five elephant asses crowded at a watering hole. I didn't have any money, but I commented on it, and the lady laughed. I told her about my collection, and she said, "Yeah, I love that picture. I was hoping somebody would come along and think it was funny too." I didn't go back to get it. I really would have liked to have it, though. I would hang it in the bathroom.