Big beasts don’t have to be brutes

The elephant, weighing perhaps six tonnes, is the largest animal on earth. Yet this favourite of creatures is one of the most gentle and caring beings on the planet. I just read a piece outlining how a full grown elephant can be transported by plane from India to America. The animal is placed standing in a huge crate. Now, if the massive creature decided to shuffle and shimmy about in its cage, the balance of the plane would be affected big time. Here is the solution the elephant handlers have come up with over the years. The crate is filled with tiny chickens, wandering around on the floor!

An elephant embodies all that is good by way of empathy, kindness, reason and temperance. Throughout the entire flight, this majestic animal stands perfectly still, not daring to move so as not to risk stepping on a single chic. The strongest living creature will not move for fear of hurting the weakest!

Blue whales are often referred to as the gentle giants of the ocean. Similar to the elephant and despite their massive size, they are known for their calm, docile and friendly behaviour. The whale will approach boats and interact with humans in a friendly manner. Sadly humans have not returned the friendship to either whale or elephant… ach sin sceal eile.

But there are gentle giants among the human herd as well and we have all had the pleasure of seeing how they exist and coexist without depending on muscle to get by. Then we have the other ‘big guys’, the ones who believe that ‘might makes right’ and that the strongest takes everything they can from the smaller guy. Let us now take a look at two examples of this glaring contrast of humanity versus menace.

Abram Lincoln, at 6’ 4” was the tallest American president. Yet the gentle giant was noted for being kind, compassionate and forgiving. (Hold that thought.) Lincoln was strong and decisive where and when it mattered, but was especially known for his humility and an ability to connect with people from all walks of life.

The second tallest president of the USA, at 6’ 3” is the incumbent, one Donald John Trump. How many of the above words associated with President Lincoln can you apply to the current US president? I thought so… I’ll put it to you this way; would you be happy with your dozen day-old chicks running around the Oval Office?

The school yard bully is always a big guy and gets away with everything because the other kids are scared to even try anything to curtail his aggression. In sport the big guy continues to hold that advantage. I think it was Joe Louis who said; ‘a good big one will beat a good small one any day’. But in other walks of life, and as that life progresses, the world treats big and small equally and we all learn that brawn is most often no match for brains. Bigger is not always better.

But the dangerous ones are the school bullies who get through the system, don’t get cured by society because they are insulated through connections, money, an incurable sense of entitlement, and never hearing the word ‘no’. When such privileged people, like Trump and his ilk, get at the wheel they cause havoc, because it is all about bullying the smaller guy.

Being big isn’t just about physical size. The biggest brutes in today’s world are those who exercise power through wealth and political influence. ‘Might makes right’, whether that means invading a sovereign country or bullying the smaller guy via the coattails of would be dictators, or influential families at the lower level.

But there are many gentle giants out there as well. Men and women who, like the elephant and Abraham Lincoln, refuse to trample on the downtrodden, and those are the hope for the future. In fact, there are more gentle giants than big bullies. Fr Frank Monks, himself a gentle giant who you could trust with your chickens, asks the question; ‘how many evil people do you know?’ Not many, he would say… so let us all try to be more like the elephant and believe that big beasts don’t have to be bullies. There is a different power in being gentle, exercising strength while retaining compassion for both yourself and others

Don’t Forget

Character cannot be purchased, bargained for, inherited, rented or imported from afar. It must be home-grown.

* Fogra: I am indebted to eagle-eyed, twinkle-toed, Pat McGrath for pulling me up on an error in a recent column. Of course it was 1954 and not 1949 that Peter McDermott; ‘the man with the cap’, captained Meath to All-Ireland success. You can’t get away with anything in this corner!

Thanks Pat…