Poop Shute

Once upon a time...

There was a small mouse and a great big elephant. They fell in love at first sight. The tiny mouse was so in love he asked the elephant to marry him. To his immense joy, she said yes!

They made great preparations for their wedding. Their families came together and there were flowers and everything anyone could ever want in a wedding.

Sadly, on that very same day the elephant died right there and then.

The mouse was, of course, very sad over his loss.

With the sadness also came a realization. He would spend all of the years of the rest of his life...

...digging.

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It may have been the delivery of this story that made it so funny to me when I first heard it, or maybe it's just plain funny. You will have to tell me in the comments. Just in case you don't get it: it's her grave he'll be digging.

This joke was told during a Yin Yoga practice I was a part of. Yin differs from most other Yoga styles in that every pose is held for five solid minutes. With all that time to fill between new poses my teacher began telling us old Buddhist folktales, fables, koans and even jokes. With his very soft, soothing delivery it was hard to tell what was going to be deep and philosophical and what would simply have a punch line.

This, to me, had both.

Yes, it's funny to me that the poor mouse chose a mate whose passing requires of him the human equivalent of digging The Grand Canyon single-handedly.

But, also isn't this a great metaphor for any love affair? As much as we humans love to bandy about words like "forever" and "always" and the like, everything in this life comes to an end. Someone will inevitably leave the relationship, one way or another. Either through a breakup, or with the finality of death, every relationship comes to an end.

Our little mouse friend knew that too. On some level, we all know that eventually we will lose everyone we love. But our mouse lived in the moment without fear or worry. He grabbed hold of love for as long as he could. To me, there's something very admirable about that. In the end, his time with her was cut short, but he couldn't know that would happen at the outset.

And when you are the one left behind, whether by death or breakup, and you are faced with the need to "get over it" doesn't it seem like you are that mouse faced with an overwhelmingly monumental task? Doesn't putting the pieces back together sometimes feel as difficult as digging that Grand Canyon all by yourself?

I'm not currently nursing a broken heart, but I've had more than my fair share. Currently I am deeply and completely fulfilled with the life I have built for myself, but I still couldn't help but let that elephant joke ring through my head since I heard it.

This may sound strange, but I think there's something comforting about it. I think it's because so many of us can identify with that little mouse. His plight speaks to us, reminds us to embrace what we have while we have it, because it will all go away some day, and there is nothing to be done about it.

It is what it is.