RUNNING AROUND by Kathy Frey

Running around -- that’s pretty much what I don’t do. And I’ve found lots of ways to not do that. Recently I’ve found a really good way. I watch elephants at a waterhole in Africa on a live camera.

Early in the morning if I’m lucky I can see one or several elephants, some storks sometimes, and some odd ruminants with black and white markings and long twisted horns, and almost always there are birds twittering away. One of the great pleasures is that there, at that waterhole, elephants do not run around. There they are, huge wrinkled lumbering things, happy pretty much to be just standing there -- maybe drinking. I have lived long enough to watch an elephant in Africa in real time -- drinking water!

They usually move very slowly. Once when an elephant lifted his huge foot, I thought the camera had frozen. But looking carefully I saw the elephant’s tail swishing, I like to think signifying heartfelt, deep, elephant peace.

So there we are -- consider the elephant, just like the one who went to Paris and lifted barbells with the little old lady, and rode up and down in an elevator, simple pleasures for elephants.

One day in front of the camera, a single old elephant stood there looking straight at me, flopping his ears that had very jagged edges, wrinkled as the oldest elephant in the waterhole universe. He was a gray old thing. He barely moved, lifted one foot -- no Lance Armstrong he. My heart went out to him. The tree, I know that waterhole tree now -- the tree was alive with unseen birds. It had rained a few days ago, the birds must have jam-filled the tree, twittering twittering twittering, the sounds all coming from my computer(can I say OMG)? The old, gray, wrinkled elephant curled his trunk and then tucked it on his tusk. I didn’t know they did that. Then he huffed, then swayed, then moved, swung his trunk again, blew some sand on his back, and after awhile he moved on.

Guess how much running around I did that day? I watched the elephant and then I left him, he was on camera still.

I was glad no camera followed me. Dishes -- I did some dishes;cooking -- I did some cooking, I had to steam some vegetables, carrots, squash; washing -- I needed to do some washing but without a camera watching -- I didn’t do the washing.

Slowly, slowly I moved toward the computer. The elephant was gone. Then slowly, slowly I moved toward an awfully interesting book and read it.