Elephant Postcard

This postcard originates from "The Elephant's Leap," created in March 2008, as a commissioned work for the "Floating World" section of the China Times. The Elephant's Leap Words by Fu Tianyu, Illustrations by Shi Peiyin The Elephant's Leap—written for a friend I deeply care about. There once was an elephant with beautiful pink skin. Many sad people came to see it. A busy boss, who forgot which grade his daughter was in, said, "You remind me of the slide from my childhood. I was thinking of ending it all, but now I'm not." A listless film director said, "Your long trunk makes me realize I'm not the most ridiculous being in the world. I was thinking of ending it all, but now I'm not." A heartbroken girl cried leaning against the elephant's thick legs, saying, "At least there's a corner where I can shelter from the rain. I was thinking of ending it all, but now I'm not." A perplexed believer, after gazing at the elephant for eight hours, smiled and said, "Through your wise eyes, I see what I couldn't comprehend. I was thinking of ending it all, but now I'm not." Many people wrote letters home saying, "Elephant, thank you for making me happy again." The elephant's skin was thick, and the elephant was heavy. It stood there quietly, gradually turning gray. "Mommy, look, the elephant has turned gray. It wasn't like this before," the elephant looked gratefully at the child. "It's just dirty. A dirty elephant is unhygienic and unpleasant. Do you remember that?" The mother pulled the child away. The elephant was sad. "Baby, look, the elephant has turned gray! It wasn't like this before," the elephant looked gratefully at the woman. "It must be old. An old elephant loses all its charm. Did you hear that?" The man pulled the woman away. The elephant was sad. "I'm not dirty, and I'm not old, I'm just... I'm just..." One day, a giraffe walked by, and the elephant called out to her, "I have something I really want to say, would you listen?" "Mmm-hmm," Miss Giraffe blinked her eyes. The elephant said, "I feel so vulnerable." The giraffe blinked her long eyelashes, her face full of disbelief. "You're the least likely creature in the world to feel vulnerable, because you're an elephant! You're so massive, no one can hurt you. You could crush even the most evil humans with one foot." "But I..." "Elephant, elephant, you must know that you cannot fall, because you have responsibilities. If the sky were to fall, you must hold it up for us to be safe," the giraffe left with a condemning gaze. The elephant decided to leap to its death. It spotted a tall building, but was asked to leave because the elevator kept ringing due to exceeding its weight limit. It spotted another tall building, but got stuck at the first-floor corner because the stairs were too narrow. It tried a third tall building, but the manager refused entry, citing a no-pets policy. Surprisingly, even attempting to end its life was fraught with obstacles for the elephant. "Could you lend me a hand?" The elephant went to find an eagle. "I want to stand somewhere high and feel the wind." "Feel the wind?" "Like people often do when they're feeling down." The eagle looked at the elephant coldly and said, "I fly up here every day, and I can see everything clearly from above." At night, a child saw a cloud shaped like an elephant drifting past his window and ran to tell his mother. The mother looked at him, delighted that the creative potential development class she'd paid three thousand for a month was finally showing results. People woke up to find an elephant standing on the roof of the building opposite. The eagle gathered a flock of its brethren. They formed a flying carpet with their strong wings and carried the elephant up under the cover of darkness. The opposition party demanded the president's immediate resignation, citing the "suffering of the elephants." Negotiators, having not studied elephant psychology, were unable to persuade it. The elephant closed its eyes and leaped forward, feeling an unprecedented lightness. The elephant didn't die. It smashed a large hole in the middle of the road, its body turning red from the pain. Many onlookers remembered that this was the pink elephant that had once given them courage. The elephant stood up, looked at the black hole on the ground, and said softly, "My unhappiness, is it this much? Can you see it?" ----------------------------------------- Length: 14.9 cm Width: 10 cm Double-sided matte lamination ----------------------------------------- Origin/Manufacturing Method Made in Taiwan