the kindness of friendly elephants

I have been told that elephants have great memories and this is particularly true in regards to their capacity for recognizing individuals and building on complex social relationships and networks. For example, a herd of elephants relies largely on their matriarch to remember and enforce rules around daily activities such as where to retrieve food. When the matriarch dies the elephants in her herd grieve for her, deeply, remembering her as time passes. Although I do not have the greatest memory and no where near that of an elephant, I do recognize and maintain deep social bonds with a number of people in my life. Therefore, I was lucky, this past weekend to enjoy lunch with an old friend. Similar to that of an elephant, I recognized my friend approaching from a distance and anxiously ran to greet her. Also similar to our elephant counterparts, we sat and reminisced about old times; fun things we did in high school and our distant childhood. We were not able to recall every detail of all the adventures we had, but we were able to capture the spirit of the times and to celebrate the deep connections we had to each others lives. I was grateful for the opportunity to reconnect with this friend. Although we demonstrated behaviours much like those of our elephant friends, I displayed very un-elephant-like traits when I realized that I forgot my bank card, just as we were going to pay. Elephants never forget, but I tend to and at the most inopportune times! Therefore, I was also very thankful for the kindness of my friend, as she lent me the money to pay for lunch. I may forget a lot of things, but I will never forget her and her kind nature.