There’s an elephant in the room. Quite literally. And she wants to go home.
How did she come to be standing in the back room of an elite woman’s residence, chained and sorrowful—the center of pleas and gawking, curses and promises?
That is for you to read, in a brilliant story, from Kate DiCamillo: The Magician’s Elephant.
Suffice it to say, the elephant was brought to Baltese by the “finest magic” the magician “had ever performed.” When it became clear (spoiler!) that the elephant really should be sent home, the magician’s quandary also became clear…
‘I believe, ‘ said Peter very quietly.
‘What do you believe?’ said the magician without moving.
‘I believe that things can still be set right. I believe that you can perform the necessary magic.’
The magician shook his head. ‘No.’ He said the word quietly, as if he were speaking it to himself. ‘No.’
There was a long silence.
Leo Matienne cleared his throat, once, and then again. He opened his mouth, and spoke two simple words. He said, ‘What if?’
The magician raised his head then and looked at the policeman. ‘What if?’ he said. ‘What if?’ is a question that belongs to magic.’
Yes, said Leo, ‘to magic and also to the world in which we live every day. So: what if? What if you merely tried?’
‘I tried already, ‘ said the magician. ‘I tried and failed to send her back.’ The tears continued to roll down his face. ‘You must understand. I did not want to send her back: she was the finest magic I have ever performed.’
Seventeen year old Sara is my favorite iconoclast. At age twelve, she organized a science experience for her peers. It began with questions, not answers. It began with materials, not final words. She set wires and serrated clips, light bulbs and batteries out on the table and essentially encouraged her peers to ask “What if?” It wasn’t long before a group of children had created a working circuit. But not before one girl found dragon’s teeth. (Snap, snap!) Which was the greatest magic?
In a recent conversation between Sara and I, the issue of natural selection was raised, through the back door. We’d been talking about the book Hardwiring Happiness, and how a person, through resting his mind on the good, can alter not only neural structures towards the positive, but also genetics. (You heard that right. We can alter ourselves, through our mindful experiences, right down to our genes.) The conversation had also covered slime mold’s leaderless “intelligence, “ the genetics of creating cancer through lifestyle choices over a series of generations (rather than through static genetic predisposition), and the intriguing discovery that Alzheimer sufferers develop genetic alterations that effectively “give them” Down syndrome.
As if that wasn’t enough.
The question then arose: what if natural selection is wrong? Or more rightly put, Sara set this out on the table: “Natural selection takes too long. It’s too random. What if something else is also at work? What if populations alter themselves, down to the genetic level, through their experiences and behaviors? That would make more sense.”
[Tweet “Natural selection takes too long. It’s too random.”]
Yes. As Leo Matienne would say, again and again in The Magician’s Elephant, “What if?” It doesn’t matter if she’s wrong. The question is intriguing. It could lead to other questions. She could even be right, in some permutation. This is how discoveries are born.
Our conversation naturally moved to other things, including the book Iconoclast: A Neuroscientist Reveals How to Think Differently. There are two main attributes required to be an iconoclast, besides the ability to think outside the room:
1. ability to counter fear of failure
2. ability to counter fear of ridicule
If you are an educator, now is the time to say, what if. What if, instead of compelling kids to counter fear of failure and counter fear of ridicule, we set up systems that largely took these out of the equation? What if we placed materials before students and acknowledged equal magic in dragon’s teeth and an electrical circuit?
If you are a business person, now is also the time to say what if. What if we put aside pet theories and worked towards the most engaging solutions, being willing to give up our “finest magic” sometimes, in order to pursue other magic that might be better for our business and our world? Iconoclast discusses alternate case studies of companies that rule through fear and intimidation (consequently squelching innovation and tending to gain it instead through acquisitions), versus businesses that promote innovation by reducing the perception that explorations are something to be feared (they do this by changing processes and culture).
In fact, we needn’t stop there. Poets, writers, parents, painters, you name it. What if we say, what if?
It is a question that belongs to “magic and also to the world in which we live every day. So: what if? What if you merely tried?”
[Tweet “So: what if? What if you merely tried?”]
Photo by Art G, Creative Commons, via Flickr. Post by L.L. Barkat.
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Richard Maxson says
Laura, what a stimulating recreation of a dialog! I have to say that I very much admire and appreciate both you and Sara for sharing not only the above discussion, but also the acute criticisms and amazing poetry from Sara. It seems to be a time today for more what ifs, for openness and forgiveness of failure and even ridicule. Thank you for this wonderful post. It is good to know when there are people in the world thinking and talking about such things; even if there are only two, it is good to know. Speaking of elephants reminds me of my favorite William Stafford poems that reflects what this post achieves. The poem is called “A Ritual To Read To Each Other” http://tinyurl.com/o97hg6b
Richard Maxson says
This should say “even if there WERE only two.”
L. L. Barkat says
Thank you, Richard. We have conversations that go all over the place. It is such fun.
“To know what occurs but not recognize the fact” is a great line in that poem. That’s it, really. We stop questioning, stop delving, and we end up with our elephant in the room, a poor pet that needs to be liberated.
What if we talked about possibilities, instead of always trying to “be right”? What if we were happy to flip something on its head, just to see what the dynamic might be?
I believe good poetry helps us do this. Helps us become iconoclasts.
Maureen Doallas says
Great post.
Warren Berger wrote a book titled ‘A More Beautiful Question’ that has some wonderful examples of what happens when we ask questions instead of look for solutions or focus on statements.
L.L. Barkat says
Thanks so much, Maureen 🙂
That sounds like a terrific book. Will check it out from the library.
I have a dream.
Of classrooms everywhere, that give students materials to work with and then say, “Ask 10 great questions about this material. Answer your questions with more questions. Or answer them however you envision answering them. Or don’t answer them at all.”
What would it look like to have classrooms that promoted iconoclasm?
Maureen Doallas says
I read somewhere that Richard Branson also used the question approach. And look… he flew!
Laura, I think you should write a piece to our Secretary of Education and make it all questions. I’d love to see how he’d respond.
L. L. Barkat says
Ha. You think that would work? 😉
Heather Eure says
Open-ended questions getting kids to think and feel, rather than accept simply being told. Yes! My middle son is (at times) accused of being an antagonist during class discussions. I tell him it’s healthy to invite the radical notion of “Who says? What makes it so? Why?” into his educational experience. It’s his, after all.
Loved this. It’s an encouragement. Thanks!
L. L. Barkat says
Thanks, Heather. Not only healthy, but so much more interesting, yes? A class of questions is a class looking for something, instead of sitting passively by.
SimplyDarlene says
What if I merely tried?
Do
I
beg
the question, “Haunt
me!”
until I do (the thing, the
deed, the dream,
the what-if)? Maybe
turn
away,
pretending
not to stare
as my guts, my
heart, my genetics,
my awkward simplicity
merge into
a lonely elephant
in
my
room.
L. L. Barkat says
This is very full, Darlene.
What if.
SimplyDarlene says
i just noticed that if i were to copy & mirror my comment box words, then slide ’em left of the poem, it’d be a whole girl… with arms outstretched, standing there in a skirt (and probably boots).
this makes me smile.
L. L. Barkat says
What an amazing visual trick your brain did for you! I love that.
And I love that her arms are outstretched, as if waiting for the “what if.”
Monica Sharman says
Maybe we could have a Top Ten Poems with Questions in Them. 🙂
L. L. Barkat says
Is it a question if it has no question mark after it?
(Do people ask questions in a spectrum of ways, that have something to do with personality or culture?)
(I like the idea. I think you are asking. And I will pass along the query to the Powers that Be.)
Richard Maxson says
Excellent idea! I second it!
Donna says
I have never met Sara, but her questioning and wondering and thinking “outside the room” take my breath away.
L. L. Barkat says
It’s a kind of freedom. And a kind of pattern-seeing. And a willingness to flip things on their heads. I love it too. So lucky to have her in my life.
Donna says
My son does this, too, but he fights it tooth and nail. He can’t help seeing so many layers and sides and possibilities – but he doesn’t embrace it… yet. He will. 🙂 I love it when ideas flow from that open space – it shows such courage.
L. L. Barkat says
Why does he fight it tooth and nail?
Donna says
I’m not sure. Because somewhere he got the message that he was out of his mind if he didn’t do what everyone expects a young man in our town to do. Follow the path – high school – college – blinding wealth. I don’t know. Maybe it’s because we are the weirdest family he knows (because we are in the minority and are not very materialistic, support ‘crazy’ dreams. Or maybe it’s because we love the music our kids listen too and don’t hate it – no push back might be a bad thing? Or maybe he thinks the rest of the world must be right so why doesn’t he want what ‘they’ have (as in keeping up with the Joneses)? I’ve been wracking my brain, and what it seems to come down to is I figure he is working something out about worth and stepping in to your own life, and that can be scary when everyone only says it’s a long shot (artist, musician). Either that or it’s testosterone. 😉 I quoted him a wordcandy just yesterday. 😉
Donna says
That being said, I wish I’d learned that at 21!
Donna says
http://wordcandy.tweetspeakpoetry.com/post/39661566327/courage-quotes-it-takes-courage-to-grow-up-and
Manish says
Grab the quote of the day and I find this quote:
The old questions lie folded
-R. S. Thomas
Manish says
and refreshing, and very next it is:
All profound distraction opens certain doors
-Julio Cortazar
how much related I wonder!
Thanks for wonderful read..
I had one image similar to what if when I was in bathroom and a question came: How about this?
https://www.facebook.com/twocupsstudio/photos/a.525178174224070.1073741832.502980939777127/529190073822880/?type=3&theater
Manish says
https://www.flickr.com/photos/tavruday/5692564138/in/datetaken/
Katie Andraski says
I thought this was a great post that made me wonder about the world in a good way and that offered a lot of hope with regards to how we can rewire our brains. Good, good work here.