Q&A Forum - December 2012

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A. Did you ever go to a Circus and wonder how the elephant could be restrained? There you have this enormous and powerful animal being kept at bay by a chain around its ankle tied to a post in the ground. All the elephant has to do is yank that post out of the ground and it could be free. But it doesn’t and do you know why? Because when it was young, that chain was strong enough to contain the young elephant. It tried to pull free but it realized it was futile so psychologically, it quit. In addition, men put fear into the elephant and broke its will. So the elephant grows up to be this powerful animal but the elephant does not know it is a powerful animal. It yields to the men who run the Circus out of fear and routine. The elephant lacks the will to be free because the elephant does not realize that it can be free.

But if a herd of other elephants were to run through the Circus grounds, chances are the bound elephant would join them. Its instincts and nature might rise up by witnessing the free elephants and it just might pull that post out of the ground and run off with the other elephants.