Nevermind their extraordinary funeral rites, in which the corpse of a dead elephant will be
visited not just by immediate friends and relatives but by many distant tribes of wiser
and dimmer elephants alike. Nevermind the way all of them will mourn together
standing solemnly over the corpse of a perfect stranger and well after the hour
of its death; that they will share perhaps – or attempt to share – what this
particular elephant might have done with his life to distinguish himself
from the other elephants. Nevermind that it’s possible for an elephant –
and not very many people are aware of this – to lift all four of its feet
from the ground at once. I know that the human body has given
me what I’m supposed to be satisfied with…The fact is I
feel ashamed that I, a mere bi-ped, cannot
remember the last time I raised my
whole body from the earth,
even just for a
moment
.
