Loser Takes All: DEAR ALIZARIN: I am a divine elephant . . .

"You are a divine elephant with amnesia

Trying to live your life in an anthole"

-- paraphrased from memory from my yoga teacher's reading of a Hafiz poem.

I love this image. At once it conjures up a circus-freakishness. In my mind it is a cartoony pinkish-white elephant, with an innocently ignorant sadness in her face. It was great lying in corpse pose, feeling a silliness arise in me as I pictured this in my mind. At the same time, I clearly understood myself on a new level. I am most definitely a divine elephant with amnesia living in an anthole. Doesn't this just explain all of life's obstacles and unpleasantness -- first, the obvious parallel to body image, but below that the very idea that we forget to remember and recognize our own beauty and divinity and purpose.

<>It also reminds me of this story "The Bear That Wasn't" by Frank Tashlin where a bear comes out of hibernation to find his forest is replaced by a town. When he is put to work, he tries to explain he is a bear, but no one will believe him because bears do not live in towns. Eventually, he questions his bearness, but finally recognizes himself for a bear despite everyone around him telling him he isn't. I think this will be a good first week's lesson. Yeah, I did get some work done today!

Well, I am going to take my divine elephant self, crawl out of my anthole