Elephant Cloud
(photo credit: Flicker)
“Look at that cloud,” Todd said. “It looks exactly like an elephant.”
And I saw it immediately. Typically, when someone points out an image he has spotted in the clouds, I have to tilt my head. I have to squint. I have to clarify which cloud I’m meant to be inspecting, this one or that, before acquiescing. Yeah, I can sort of see that,I’ll say. This elephant cloud, though – I saw it. The outline of it’s trunk, of it’s ears, of each stocky leg, was as well-defined, as keen and clear, as the Atlanta traffic over which it hovered.
It hit me then, on our ride into midtown, that I’ve always associated elephants with clouds. It is a pairing that has nothing to do with logic or reason and everything to do with Walt Disney’s Dumbo; how that alcoholic stork, with a bundled baby Dumbo, stopped and sat atop a cloud in order to inspect, through bloodshot eyes, the map to the zoo train where Mrs. Jumbo awaited the delivery of her calf.
As a girl, Dumbo was my favorite movie. My father bought our first VCR specifically so that I might have my own copy of the film. CBS advertized that it would feature Dumbo on it’s Sunday night program, The Wonderful World of Disney, and Dad went out and purchased the VCR. It was the first movie we ever recorded (and probably our most-watched tape). That scene with the stork was such a nail-biter; he was so engrossed in the map, and all the while Dumbo’s heavy body was sinking through the cloud. The stork caught him, of course, but barely.
(photo credit: Disney)
I thought clouds were that way for the longest time. That they were light, but solid. That they, the individual clouds we could see from the ground, were cohesive and with form. Like handfuls of synthetic pillow stuffing or wads of cotton candy. My first trip on an airplane, then, turned out to be somewhat disappointing.
“Where are the clouds?” I asked my mother.
“They’re all around us,” she said. “They look different now that we are in the sky with them, don’t they? Like fog.”
I feel like adulthood, and all it’s trappings – employment, homemaking, motherhood – are basically like that. When you consider the view from below, when you study it as a child, adulthood looks like such a solid, “together” state of existence. Once you gain some altitude, though, once you start cruising along, you see it for what it is. A vapor, of sorts. A vapor of experiences and feelings that are constantly changing – that are drawn up, or released, molecule by molecule. It is a fog. Beautiful, but precarious. It is the elephant cloud that is changed by the wind into a turtle before you have time to snap a picture with your phone. But turtle clouds are nice. And whatever appears after the wind blows the turtle cloud – that, too, will be lovely.
Ginger's Grocery 
I love this analogy. Love it
I’m glad it works for you as well, that makes me feel normal
😀
Great job, Ginger!
Thanks buddy.
I shall ponder the clouds today from below…as I live my life in the fog of adulthood. 🙂 A lovely post.
Gracias!
What AreYouFinishedYet said. It’s awesome. I love it!
🙂 I love that you love it! Thanks for reading
It’s a good show of how perspective changes how we see things, literally and metaphorically. And it’s fun. I haven’t thought about Dumbo in years.
I couldn’t tell you the last time I saw it. I should make the kids watch it with me this weekend.
I too am a big lover of clouds. I love to ride along in the car looking out the sunroof at the clouds. Interesting fact…if you’ve ever flown over the ocean it’s amazing how looking down the ocean, with the white caps on the waves, looks very similar to the sky. It’s like the world has turned upside down.
Clouds are awesome.
That makes me long to ride in an airplane. “Like the world has turned upside down.” – beautifully said
I think clouds make faces at us, when we look away, but when we look at them pretend to make pretty shapes and stuff.
The clouds are mocking you, Bitter Ben!
Everyone mocks me.
Holy moly Ging. This is crazy good.
Thank you muchly. Sometimes I hesitate to write a non-funny post, I worry about being too corny, so I’m glad you liked it.
Beautiful.
While reading this, my cat walked across my iPad screen and I see she clicked on the little star for ‘like’….I guess you have a new fan
Please thank your cat for her support, Rob!
One of the best descriptions of adulthood I’ve read. I love this piece.
Oh man, thanks!
First, I loved the post.
Second, I’m feeling really connected with you right now because…I SAW THE SAME CLOUD and wished for my camera!!!! I couldn’t believe it when I saw you had it posted here! I love it when God does does funny stuff like that!
That’s nuts! We share the sky, though, so it is bound to happen.