My heart is still racing. This
video captures a baby elephant who slipped into deep water and was drowning. Her mother, aunts and cousins all banded together to wrap their snaky trunks around her and lift her up. I had a visceral response, aching to reach into the screen and help push. Yeah, like I can lift a five hundred pound baby elephant. Even though I was pretty sure the photographer would not be so heartless as to make thousands of people witness the death of a baby, even one with thick skin, I could not calm down until she was ushered back to safety, exhausted but alive.
I don't know her name. But I was rooting for her.
This week on Facebook a friend admitted that she is drowning. She asked for help with her small children so she could spend time with her husband. A trunk load of offers appeared within hours, as well as affirmations for her willingness to be vulnerable. My offer took the form of Couple's Evening Out, a monthly event in which people without small children volunteer to babysit for three hours. We even feed their kids pizza. It is a pretty nice arrangement.
There is something deep within us that wants to lend a hand. I call it mercy, and apparently elephants have it too.
