Of Elk Konnected, wind farms & gorillas... Friends, Romans, countrymen...

[Patriot]

Friends, Romans, countrymen...

There may be an 800 lb gorilla in our room.  It may have been here for a long time.  That critter has been eating bananas and peanuts.  We can see that because there are pieces of fresh banana and peanuts all over the place.  Food is good, and many are running around gobbling up those crumbs thinking it's manna from heaven.  Some are making sure the gorilla has plenty of food to eat so that he keeps dropping crumbs.  A few are standing aside asking for more info about the animal, his feeders, the sources of his food and the reasons he's in the room.  Folks in all three groups have access to this forum and other venues.  Some have answered by suggesting that the questioners shut up, look at the crumbs, eat and be happy (or get the hell outta Ft Dodge).  Those responses don't explain the gorilla.  Those 'answers' don't tell anything about the gorilla's handler(s), the zookeepers or the food.  The gorilla is still in the room.  

It would appear that the animal keepers may have a white elephant too.  That only raises more unanswered questions.  Then there are the numerous red herrings.  When these animals decide to move about, something is gonna get broken or somebody is gonna get hurt.  That's the problem with ignoring large animals in a room full of hungry people.  Ignoring the creatures do not make them nonexistent.

Unlike topics on this forum and the smoke of spring pasture burns, this matter of the gorilla, elephant and the herrings is not going away any time soon.  Most of us pay to sit in this room and have every right to know all about the animals.  We all have an equal say in how our room should be decorated.  There are answers, and the answers will see the light of day.  The handlers and zookeepers have now had many chances to provide clear answers informally.  They have failed to do so.  The critters may turn out to be stuffed toys or illusions and the crumbs real manna.  That would be great.  They may turn out to be something else entirely.  No matter the outcome, the answers will be made manifest.  Count on it.

[Ross]

That is a great analogy. Do you reckon there may be some blind people in the room.

[Patriot]

That is a great analogy. Do you reckon there may be some blind people in the room.

I'm sure there are.  And they are the ones who are most deserving of the truth, lest they be trampled in time when the critters move.

[Warph]

My pilgrim soul once undertook

A journey of the mind

To Hindustan, the mythic East

The truth of things to find.

Of blind men once a rhyme I'd heard

Whose hands did serve for sight

But none of which could comprehend

The human creature's plight

As mortal and as strait of mind.

Each blind man, so it's told,

Would shout to others, giving names

To what he touched, and being bold,

Would call the white elephant's leg the whole

Another one, the trunk,

And thus the creature must reflect

What each man held, so each man thunk.

So one man said "It's like a wall."

Another, "Like a tree."

And so on down the line, it's told,

Each claimed the whole of mystery.

And as each man would speculate,

The older poem did conclude

That God must likewise be beyond

The dogma claimed by any dude–

Divine things must be likewise dark

To those whose limits hold

Perceptions to one's narrow sight.

And so I heard, and took as told

Until I came upon those men–

As blind as stories tell–

But where the old tale told of five,

Five there were, but one as well

Upon a hill, looking down,

As blind as all the rest,

But telling them with great panache

That what each one would thus attest

Was partial, part of larger mass

An white elephant, he cried,

Must be the whole, but now I knew,

And when I knew, I sighed

Because I saw a different sight

From poems' easy lore

Indeed, five blind men saw with hands,

But objects there were four.

Two men indeed did pat the hide

Of the white elephant so big,

But one in fact did touch a tree,

Another a nearby pig.

The fifth blind man in fact found a snake,

An oddly sanguine asp:

It never bit despite the abuse!

And then I did begin to grasp:

The sixth was the one to see,

I knew before too long:

The one who wove the tale of One

To that one only did belong

A white elephant, a child's toy,

A tiny world, at that.

As fingers grasped the minuscule

The blind man yelled, the blind man spat

And framed the dark so that it might

Be just like toys so small

And, being blind, the man knew not

That he had missed at all

The grandeur and variety

Of things under the sun

But being prone to claim too much,

The sixth man made all one.

And in the years that came to pass

The blind man fame did gain,

His poem did become a fad

On tour folks paid for his refrain,

And soon the ones who wished to sound

Like learned, reading folks

Would quote the poem I once heard

And tell some good, broad-minded jokes,

"Those fools," the learned folks would start,

"They think a tusk a spear!"

"They think the ear a fan, I say!"

The fans did shout, then sipped their beer.

But I returned to my small world

Convinced that I'm still fine

To keep confessing creeds of old

And keep a humble mind.

I do not know enough, it seems,

To say that all our ways

Together make an white elephant

On which I only gaze.

I do not write, in other words,

To claim that I can see:

I only wish to offer folks

Another possibility.

[Diane Amberg]

Gorillas cannot live on bananas and peanuts alone.They require a balanced diet from many different handlers who are interested in the survival of the gorilla. The volunteer keepers worked hard to be sure the gorilla felt loved and was content and happy. People came to see the gorilla. They were interested in it and brought their friends. They knew a group cared very much about the gorilla's well being and brought even more friends. They spent money while they were visiting and sent post cards back home about the neat gorilla.
   But a few  self interested people didn't like the gorilla and they tormented and teased the gorilla and the volunteer keepers and their supporters until the keepers wandered away from discouragement and went on to spend their time on more appreciated projects. The gorilla died of a broken heart and the people no longer came. But the  few people who didn't like the gorilla didn't care, because they felt they had a righteous cause and didn't really care about the outfall. It was more important to have the spotlight on their small group and their cause.

[Patriot]

Diane, that perspective is about the sickest and most dysfunctional codependent crap that could have been presented on the subject.  I hope you don't work with addicts, children of addicts, codependents, ACOA folks or anyone with PTSD, because you obviously have no real understanding of the '800 lb gorilla or white elephant in the room analogies'.  It has nothing to do with Grimm's fairy tales.  Look up Melody Beatty and John Bradshaw sometime.

[Ross]

Gorillas cannot live on bananas and peanuts alone.They require a balanced diet from many different handlers who are interested in the survival of the gorilla. The volunteer keepers worked hard to be sure the gorilla felt loved and was content and happy. People came to see the gorilla. They were interested in it and brought their friends. They knew a group cared very much about the gorilla's well being and brought even more friends. They spent money while they were visiting and sent post cards back home about the neat gorilla.
   But a few  self interested people didn't like the gorilla and they tormented and teased the gorilla and the volunteer keepers and their supporters until the keepers wandered away from discouragement and went on to spend their time on more appreciated projects. The gorilla died of a broken heart and the people no longer came. But the  few people who didn't like the gorilla didn't care, because they felt they had a righteous cause and didn't really care about the outfall. It was more important to have the spotlight on their small group and their cause.

Very nice try but insuffecitent you failed to address the failure of the handlers to be truthful and open and that's how they miss the real picture.

[Roma Jean Turner]

Now I have a headache.

[Ross]

Now I have a headache.

Are you related to any my friends the Turner's in Independence, Ks? Just curious.

[Roma Jean Turner]

Not that I know of Ross.  My grandfather John owned the lumber yard in Moline until his death in 1960"  He also wrote the 'Annie Knight' column.  My dad's name was George Turner.  That is my relationship to Elk Co.