It's All In A Title

When I went to Kenya a little over two years ago I just had a blog.  No title, pretty plain colors, and just some thoughts from me to whoever happened upon the blog.  There wasn't much to it.  But not now.  It is a new year and a new journey to the "Country of Africa" (you would be surprised at how many people think Africa is a country, not a continent made up of 56 sovereign nations).

With that in mind I decided to spruce up the old blog, and I came up with a title that I liked quite a bit - "Tracking Elephants."  It isn't a metaphor.  It isn't even something that I'll probably do.  It just sounded cool to me and here's why:

When I first went to Africa, in 2008, I was on a night safari when we drove up near some elephants, and our guide Mariana had the driver turn off the lights and kill the engine.  Usually this would be as scary as lighting up a cigarette in a meth lab, due to the fact that an elephant is a pretty large animal, and easily capable of crunching one Michigan State undergrad after another under its feet.  But, it was one of the coolest experiences of my life.  There we sat - watching some elephants eating their umpteenth meal of the day, with a clear night sky, a big bright moon lighting these pachyderms, and the Southern Cross looming overhead.  The elephants never even seemed to notice us.  They just ate and when they were done they rambled away.  That was it.  


Maybe we could have followed, but that would have been asking for trouble.  It was just perfect.  It was this memory that I thought of when I came up with the title of "Tracking Elephants."  Maybe if I keep looking around I'll bump into some more elephants.  Though I am sure it wouldn't be the same.  But maybe...

Picture taken in 2008 near Kruger National Park, South Africa