Confronting The Elephant Head in the Room

I was afraid of the Eastman House even before I was terrified by my first movie at the house, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.

We had visited the place a few times before as it is/was the most famous house in Rochester owned by the most famous of Rochesterians, George Eastman. As  a kid, I loved elephants based on a couple of Golden books that I had read or had read to me or both. My grandfather was present when Houdini made Jumbo the elephant disappear in Madison Square Garden. An elephant was a wondrous, kind hearted magical creature. My father told me that there was an elephant in a house and asked if I wanted to see it.

I had been to the zoo before. I had seen an elephant. I had seen a house. I couldn't imagine an elephant in a house. So we set off to East Avenue.

We entered the fabulous house and made our way to the main room on the ground floor and THERE IT WAS. A very scary elephant head on the wall. Impossible to ignore. Diffiuclt to explain. I didn't like it and wanted to get the heck out of the room ASAP. 

The reality at the time at the time (1950) was that Eastman had shot the elephant while on safari in Africa which established him as a big, game hunter and a macho man. Over the years, it became well known that he hadn't shot the elephant and the elephant wasn't even an elephant but a work of "art". The only thing George was shooting on safari was his camera which he fired at as much wild life as he could. Even today when I go out on a photo shoot with my Rochester photographer friends we call it going on a safari,

Everybody who saw the elephant head, which is everybody who entered the Eastman house had an opinion about it. To some it was an example of taxidermic excellence. To others, an example of sportsmanship and bravery. To others a display of hubris. To others an illustration of cruelty to animals. To others a zenith of bad taste. To others the subject of an autobiographical yarn yet to be told until the right time and circumstance.

Whatever it was, it was too much for me as a child. As I grew older, every visit to the Eastman House, changed my perspective on the elephant in the room. The grotesque, hideous, repellent, attractive,gorgeous head kept morphing in meaning while remaining exactly the same. You could always tell the people who were viewing the elephant in the room for the first time and were unaccompanied by a guide. Most of them had cameras and were snapping away during an undeniable Kodak moment in the house of the man who had created Kodak and who later kiled himself. They were believing or doubting whatever the person next to them was expounding who, in most cases, knew even less than they did

Throughout my life, I have encountered many a figurative elephant in many a metaphoric room. Something everybody notices but is afraid to talk about. I became one of those people who pointed out the obvious in spite of the surrounding gaslight and imaginary boundaries.

I had overcome my fear of the Elephant head in the room.