In 1967, Romain Gary, that remarkable poet of the spirit, penned an address to you, the elephants of earth, of such stunning clarity and beauty; it is a prayer for life. It made one almost jealous of your great startling species, so many years ago. I was just a little boy then in Paris. My grandfather had known Gary and helped to liberate my home town. I did not know the fascists in WWII. I did not fly fighter planes to deliver us from tyranny. I did not liberate starving prisoners who suffered the torture and ignominy of the camps. I did not partake of the horrors of that time. I am of another time.
Our time has its terrors too, but today my son has walked amongst you and felt a joy unlike any on earth. His name is Lysander. And he can tell you, we need you more than ever in our species’ history. You see, he learned to walk and talk with the herds, inspired by the pageant of your kind parading before the great backdrop of Kilimanjaro. Then, a year later he returned and sang a song coming from the honesty and love and joy of a 2 year old.
“A hundred animals are better than two!” Then he asked, “Why are elephants important daddy?” He will never be the same. Something of your soul and presence on this earth now inhabits his blood, his memory, his very soul. But since your friend Romain wrote his inimitable words, our species has utterly failed you. His words will long be remembered as an incantation to you, the elephant, who truly upholds the world. Today I am writing for what remains of the 21st century. This time that has produced weapons that can annihilate all life on earth. A time when the Cold War between Russia and America has returned. A time when the seas are suffering thanks to the overheated industry of our machine-suffocated lives. And we are failing the life force. It is the time of the sixth extinction, and my head bows before this singular time in evolution.
Recently men of very small mind have been playing politics with your kind, you who are so much more coherent than we could ever hope to be. They trade in body parts, much as we made lampshades out of some of our own kind during WWII. Dear Friends, we have learned nothing since the war. Your future will dictate where we are heading on this delicate planet. We have played dice with your future, allowing ivory to be sold, allowing container shipments of tons of your teeth, your splendid curving swords, to flow from country to country as if you were an item to be sold on the open market.
