One joker even filled in the blank himself by remarking that it’s obviously because I can only see very large animals clearly with my one eye. But my love for these fascinating, powerful animals began long before I started seeing with just one eye!
Sambo
One of the first times I went home with my husband, my father-in-law told me that people at work called him “Sambo.” I understood right away why. He was a big man with rather large ears. From the moment I found that out, I regularly sent him postcards with pictures of elephants. He acted almost annoyed, but deep down he enjoyed the cards. That became clear when he made me a little wooden elephant whose trunk and ears you can move by lifting and lowering the tail. On the bottom of the small wooden block the elephant stands on, he carved “My name is Sambo” in elegant letters. That was the beginning of my enormous collection.
The Collection
Family, friends, and acquaintances joined in, and over the years I ended up with a whole collection of small wooden, stone, and glass elephants. That collection is still growing—for example, with elephants from my students, who give them to me instead of flowers. But also with a little wooden elephant I “adopted” because my neighbors didn’t want to take it with them when they moved. And with two little green jade elephants that a student brought back from his trip to China. During a company outing, someone molded a round blue elephant figurine for me that’s so ugly it’s actually beautiful. There’s a story behind every figurine!
I have informative books about the lives of various species of elephants, as well as books with romanticized stories about these fascinating, gigantic animals. For example: *Modoc*, about the love between a little boy and an elephant. *Pop Aye*, the story of a man who travels back to his homeland with an elephant; this book has also been made into a movie. And then there’s Hansken, the famous elephant that traveled throughout Europe and was sketched by Rembrandt.
I also regularly receive drawings of elephants. When someone asks why my logo features the elephant’s chubby cheeks, I always say it’s because drawing the head with the trunk is quite difficult. To prove that it’s not as hard as it seems, a student will often draw the front view—while listening to me during a class.
I’m still missing one
So there’s a story behind every elephant in my collection. I cherish those stories. Secretly, though, I’m still missing one—namely, one that has only one eye.
Anita Hol-Bubeck
