Once upon a time, there a mouse named Andy. Andy lived in the greatest forest in the land, where all types of animals lived together and got along. Andy came to this forest as a young mouse to live amongst the deer and rabbits, cats and dogs, and of course, other mice. There were mice in every forest in the land, but they aren't treated very well in many of them. It was much better here though. He was in the freest forest of them all. Certainly, there were still lots of things that mice couldn't do, but Andy was determined to fix that. Andy was a very smart mouse, and success would await him. After providing thoughtful
musings on what it's like to be a mouse, he became one of the most well-known
mice in the land.
The forest had many different animals, but the leadership had always been split between the elephants and the donkeys. For many years, the elephants and donkeys worked together to improve life and to make sure everyone was safe. And the other animals had always been so happy living in such a great forest; they never lost trust in the elephants and donkeys to take care of them. The animals, when important decisions needed to be made, would just choose between the elephants and the donkeys to take care of it. It was a great system.
Andy thought the elephants were grand animals, independent and powerful, and decided that he would side with the elephants when big decisions needed to be made. He really didn't trust the donkeys so much. But a lot of the other mice were surprised by this. Elephants were known to curl up their trunks and scamper away whenever they see a mouse, and many elephants talked about ways they could get rid of them. But Andy didn't care. He knew that not all elephants were afraid of mice, and he wasn't alone. There were entire groups of mice who supported the elephants. And there were even mice who glued on fake trunks and pretended to be elephants themselves. But still, Andy was an exception. Most mice trusted the donkeys instead of the elephants when important decisions needed to be made.
Recently, an elephant had become the leader of the forest, after the donkey before him was scolded by the elephants for doing improper things with a young woodchuck. This new elephant wasn't the smartest elephant out there, but people were impressed with his ability to think up cool names for all the other animals. Little did he know that leading the forest would become much harder than that. On a late-summer morning, some visiting tigers came into the forest, knocked over some trees and started fires; all kinds of animals, even other tigers, died that day.
The anger throughout the forest was widespread. The tigers had come from another forest very different from the one Andy lived in. Everyone wondered why these tigers would do such things, and animals from all over the forest volunteered to catch the tigers who were responsible for it. Pigs, llamas, buffaloes, bears, and every other type of animal in the forest all said goodbye to their families and headed off to get the tigers. In the forests in that far away part of the land, however, instead of elephants and donkeys being in charge, there were lions and tigers. The lions and tigers didn't get along as well as elephants and donkeys did, and because of that, there was a lot of fighting whenever they tried to change who the leaders were. It was a place that few people in Andy's forest truly understood.
Throughout the land, animals from other forests joined in the effort to catch the tigers, and indeed, many tigers were then caught. Enough so, that a lion was able to take over, one who was friendly to elephants and donkeys and was liked by both lions and tigers as well. It was starting to look like the elephants would save the forest, and Andy was eager for the day when the elephants would help the mice become more free, the same way they helped the lions in the other forest become free.
But despite all that success in finding a lion to take over, the tigers who ordered the attack were never caught, and they disappeared into the remote hills and caves, never to be seen again. The elephants leading Andy's forest all of a sudden seemed not to care. Instead, they started worrying about a lion in a nearby forest who they didn't like very much. This lion was the meanest lion in the land, and both the elephants and the donkeys wanted to get rid of him. In fact, this lion had such a bad reputation that when the tigers first attacked the forest, many of the elephants assumed that he was behind it. But the owls in the forest, many of whom had flown to the forests where the lions and tigers come from, told the elephants that it wasn't right to believe that he helped the tigers. This lion hated tigers as much as he hated elephants and donkeys.
Even so, Andy wasn't convinced that the elephants were wrong. "Tigers and lions sometimes get along fine," he said, "Haven't you ever seen a liger?"
"Ligers are rare," the owls replied, "And they certainly don't come from the lions who have fought with tigers their whole life."
Andy refused to believe that the elephants were wrong, and he cheered as the elephants sent the animals who pledged their service to the forest to capture the lion. But this forest had many more lions and tigers than the other forest, and much fewer animals from other forests decided to help. The owls were worried too. "What would happen after that?" they said, "Who would be in charge? Who would control the tigers once the lion was gone?" But Andy had faith that the elephants could capture the lion and put a new one in charge who could do all the things the elephants wanted him to do. And as the animals of the forest once again said goodbye to their families, the mean lion knew his days were numbered.
While all of this was happening in a forest far away, something was happening inside Andy's own forest that made him very excited as well. In a part of the forest where many mice lived, a new elephant stood up and said that he wanted to be in charge. This elephant was the biggest, strongest elephant Andy had ever seen. And best of all, he wasn't afraid of mice! It was love at first sight. Andy always dreamed of a day when the other elephants saw themselves as being weak for their fear of mice, and what a better way for that to happen than for the biggest elephant of them all calling them girlie-men for always running away from the harmless little mice.
This new elephant was so popular that the animals in that part of the forest overwhelmingly chose him to be their leader, to replace a donkey that everyone thought was too dull and wimpy. It was a good time to be an elephant, especially the ones who liked being popular more than anything else. Cabbage Patch Elvis was one of those elephants. Like Andy, he believed what the elephants said about the mean lion, and knew that it was important to capture him. But unlike Andy, he was an elephant himself, and he seemed to believe everything the elephants in charge said. And if the elephants said that mice are to blame for the elephants' fear of them, then Cabbage Patch Elvis said it as well. Cabbage Patch Elvis knew that if his fellow elephants were popular, he'd just have to say whatever the elephants were saying, and he'd be popular as well.
Because of this, Cabbage Patch Elvis was surprised that Andy thought this new elephant would change all of the other elephants' minds. He and his cabbage patch of elephants and their pet parrots didn't question what the elephants told them, and it was working. There was no reason for the elephants to do anything differently than what they were doing. They were perfect, and polling confirmed it.
The lion was finally captured, and people across the forest celebrated. While the animals searched for him, an elephant was put in charge of that forest, but he found it to be difficult. From the beginning, the elephants expected that they could just take over in this forest, make it free, and that way the lions and tigers would be able to get along. But the lions, tigers, and even the other animals in this new forest became suspicious of the elephants. They understood why the elephants wanted to capture the lion; except for his small pride, no one liked him very much. But now that they captured him, why were they still here? What did they want? Were they trying to help the zebras who moved to a nearby forest not too long ago? A lot of those zebras don't get along with lions and tigers. And why are they building that huge elephant fort?
Back in the cabbage patch, the elephants and the parrots continued to boast about how good things were going in the other forest. But things really weren't going so well. The lions were unhappy because they were no longer able to rule over the forest. And the tigers were unhappy after some jackasses from Andy's forest put some tigers in a cage and hung them by their tails. It became more and more dangerous as large numbers of both lions and tigers wanted the animals that were sent there to leave. The brave animals from Andy's forest persevered, but it was clear to both Andy and the owls that a greater effort was needed to succeed in getting the lions and tigers to accept the elephants as their leaders, at least until they were ready to pick their own leader.
Yet even when it became clear that the elephants were only pretending that things were going well in the other forest, Andy continued to criticize the owls and the donkeys for being too unrealistic about what was happening. Andy knew that the elephants would do whatever it took to succeed. That was what he liked about the elephants. They were the responsible ones.
But what happened next, Andy didn't expect. When it became clear that something needed to be done, and that more of the forest's animals would be needed to fight the lions and tigers, Andy waited for the elephants in charge to start doing something. Instead, however, all the elephants in the forest started turning a bright shade of yellow.
Andy, and some of the other animals in the forest, began to realize that the elephants weren't quite so brave and strong as they said they were. And soon, it was time again for the forest to choose between an elephant and a donkey to lead them. Cabbage Patch Elvis, along with the other elephants and parrots in the cabbage patch, tried to convince the animals of the forest that the elephants weren't turning yellow at all. And when the donkeys and the owls said that the elephant in charge turned yellow a long time ago, the elephants were even able to convince everyone that it was the donkey who turned yellow instead. By this point, even Andy couldn't bring himself to choose the elephant, but it didn't matter. Too many people believed what the elephants in the cabbage patch were saying, and they chose the elephant again.
Over time, other animals who were thinking about fighting the tigers decided that, if the elephants won't help, than neither would they. Eventually, the tigers began to take over in the other forest, and this made the lions over there even angrier. The fighting over there became so bad that the lions became afraid of the tigers, the tigers were afraid of the lions, and both were afraid of the animals from Andy's forest, who were told by the elephants in charge to start fires in order to scare both the lions and the tigers into being good.
With things going so poorly in the other forest, and the elephants in charge unwilling to do anything about it, Andy's hope for the elephants fell to the big, strong, elephant who took over that part of the forest where so many mice lived. Things once again looked good for Andy and his dream. In that part of the forest, the leaders from all over got together and agreed upon something that had never been decided before in the forest. They decided that mice should be able to live in houses with other mice. For as long as anyone can remember, mice were never allowed to do that. Many of the other animals continued to believe the stories about how mice spread disease and how it will eventually lead to their own baby squirrels and raccoons living with mice. Andy knew all of that to be foolish, and he'd spent so much of his life telling people that mice aren't responsible for those things. But the big, strong, elephant, now fully in charge of that part of the forest, instead of approving their decision, curled up his trunk and ran away.
Andy was dejected. As he sat upon a tree stump, staring at the ground and wondering how he could have been so wrong about the elephants, he looked up and saw Cabbage Patch Elvis, his elephant skin glowing bright yellow. He was surrounded by other elephants and a few parrots, as he usually is, although much less of them than the last time Andy saw him.
"What's the matter, Andy?" asked Cabbage Patch Elvis.
"I'm sorry, Cabbage Patch, but it's hard for me to like elephants any more," he said. "They just don't understand me."
Cabbage Patch Elvis remembered what Andy said back when the big, strong, elephant first took over that part of the forest, and immediately knew why he felt that way. "You see, Andy, when someone disagrees with you, you can change their mind. But when someone is afraid of you, you can't."
"I guess you're right," Andy said, and then continued to sit silently on the stump. But as Andy thought about what was happening in the other forest, something didn't quite make sense to him. "But now that the tigers and lions in the faraway forest are afraid of us, how come you're still telling people that we can change their minds?"
Cabbage Patch Elvis leaned over to Andy and began to whisper so the parrots couldn't hear him. "I know it won't work," he replied. "I just want the elephants to be popular. We'll figure out a way to blame it on the donkeys."
"Don't you care about being right?" Andy asked. "Isn't that what the elephants in the cabbage patch do? Find the truth?"
"No," Cabbage Patch chuckled. "Our job is to get the parrots to tell the animals what they want to hear, and that makes us popular. Why worry about what the owls and foxes think when you can just get the turkeys and jackasses to think you're really smart?"
Andy finally saw how the elephants were able to get away with it all that they did and he felt somewhat embarrassed for being taken in. But both he and Cabbage Patch Elvis knew that time was running out for the elephants.
"It's getting hard to be an elephant now, Andy," Cabbage Patch continued after he began to show a worried face. "A lot of our parrots have flown away, and people are laughing at our bright yellow skin. But we can't help it; this is how we've learned to survive. Elephants are big, dumb, and slow. We'd be killed right away if we actually had to fight lions or tigers. When we're scared, we survive by turning yellow and using the parrots to convince the other animals that they need to fight for us. Eventually, the other animals figure it out, but at least we're still around in the end to make more elephants."
"That's horrible," Andy said. "But what do you do now that the other animals have figured it out?"
"I guess we just wait until people forget. We never forget. And as soon as everyone forgets what the elephants did the last time, we just convince people that the donkeys aren't as strong as us, and we get to do it again."
Andy was taken aback. He was learning so many new things about the elephants. But one thing was still not clear. "But what if it's all written down, so that the other animals will never forget either?"
"I'm not worried, Andy," said Cabbage Patch Elvis, "Wasn't it all written down before?"