What part of the elephant do you hold?

Have you ever done something with a friend and when you tell someone else about it you find you are sharing 2 different stories.

This happened to Emma once.

She had shared a lovely day at the beach, seen many sea creatures and danced in and out of the waves that crashed against the shore with fluffy white foam, happily collecting sea shells that washed ashore.

By the time it was time for bed she was very excited to tell her daddy about all the lovely things she had seen and done during the day.

As she started telling her daddy all about her day, her brother joined in, but he had a very different story. He said the waves had been small, there was no sea shells to be found and there were birds everywhere.
Emma became angry and said this was not true and that her story was the right one, her brother became angry at her and shouted that his story was correct.

Emma and the elephants ear

Daddy tried to tell Emma that 2 people can have different stories about the same thing and still be true.
Emma thought he was being silly and that only one story could be true.

Daddy tucked her up into bed with a promise that tomorrow she would understand. Emma wondered how it could be possible that 2 different stories about the same thing could be true and drifted off to sleep wondering what Daddy would show her tomorrow.

The next day Daddy took Emma out for a walk, he told her to close her eyes as he lifted her up in air and said “keep your eyes closed and tell me what you feel”

Emma did not know that her daddy had lifted her up to the ear of a large elephant.
Reaching up, she described what she felt “it is warm and soft, a little hairy and very flappy”

Telling her to open her eyes, Emma gasped in delight at the wonderful elephant in front of her.

Daddy looked at her and said “So, Emma, if I asked you to tell me what an elephant felt like you could say it was warm and soft, a little hairy and very flappy”

Emma nodded in agreement.

Emma and the elephants leg

Daddy then told Emma to go and stand near it’s leg and tell him what an elephant felt like

Emma hugged the huge leg of the elephant and said “it is hard and strong and very heavy”

Emma and the elephants tummy

“What about the tummy, Emma?” Daddy asked

Reaching up, Emma said “it is enormous and soft and it wiggles a little, it covers all of my head as far as I can reach”

Emma and the elephants tail

Moving around to the tail, Emma shared “Oh, here it is small and skinny with a little tuft of hair and it moves very quickly”

Emma and the elephants tusk

Coming back to the head and reaching up to the tusk Emma shared “it is very hard and shiny and smooth with a pointy tip”

What about the trunk Emma? Daddy asked. "Oh it moves and it is soft and yet very hard and it has a small finger on the end to grab things with" Emma replied.

Emma and the elephants trunk

Daddy swooped her up and asked her to look at the whole elephant, Emma understood.

“I get it Daddy” she said, “it depends where and how you look at things what they look like to each person”

Emma understood how an elephant could be enormous and skinny, fat and cold, hairy and smooth, flappy and strong all at the same time depending on which part of it you were holding or looking at.

Emma and the whole elephant

She understood how 2 people could go to the same place at the same time and by looking at different things they could have 2 very different stories to share.

She also understood how people can see the same thing and depending on what they were thinking about, their stories could be different.

She smiled at Daddy and said “Thank you Daddy, from now on I will listen to other people’s stories even if they are different to mine and maybe by hearing everyone’s stories I might understand even more, just like putting all the stories together to see the whole elephant, instead of just bits of it”

She and Daddy laughed and Emma gave the whole elephant a big hug – well at least the bits of it she could reach.