Letter to the Editor – The Elephant Story

Many years ago a group of villages needed some work done and after much discussion it was decided they would buy an elephant. When the elephant arrived many were excited to see him do the work, but it took a while for the elephant to become accustomed to its surroundings. But the villagers were very loyal and fed the elephant and cleaned up after the elephant, anticipating the day when he would start doing the work they needed.

The villagers started to use the elephant for the work they needed done, but found that the elephant had some health issues and could not do the work it was purchased for. Still being loyal villagers, they went about feeding and cleaning up after the elephant in hope he would get better and be able to do the work.

Some of the villagers started to worry, what if the elephant could not do the work? Then they would have to hire it done. So they did find someone that would do the work and to their surprise would do it cheaper than feeding and taking care of the elephant they had purchased. Even though they might have been very proud and fond of their elephant, they could not afford to feed and cleanup after him and pay for the work to be done by someone else.

As time went on, a couple of the villages did not think it was fair that they had to feed and care for an elephant that now was costing them twice what they had planned and was not doing the job they had bought it to do. The rest of the villages did not like the situation, but out of loyalty to the elephant still fed and cleaned up after the animal in addition to paying for someone to do the job that the elephant was originally purchased.

It became harder and harder for the people in the villages to come up with the extra money to feed and care for the elephant, so many of the villagers moved away. As more and more villagers moved away it became harder and harder for those that stayed to feed and care for the elephant. Years went by, and the elephant never did the work it was purchased for and the villages finally ran out of food and people to care for the elephant. A few of the people remaining couldn’t even remember why the villages even had an elephant.

Eventually due to lack of care and neglect all of the villages and the elephant died. This left very few people who knew the story of ARPA the elephant.

Rick Robbins
General Manager
Colorado Mills