Janet's Notes

Several years ago when my husband Tom and I were visiting our son, David, and his family in South Africa, they took us on safari. On the second day, our guide pulled the truck to the side of the road and pointed off in the distance. We stood up in the open back of the truck and stared at a group of five elephants slowly walking through the brush toward us. All but one ignored us as they crossed the road in front of us. He stopped, reached out his trunk and touched the truck’s front bumper. We froze. It felt like he looked each one of us in the eye. For sure he stared directly at me. After a few moments he sort of shook his head, as if he had decided we were not worth the effort that dumping the truck off the road would take, and walked on, following his friends path. We took a deep breath and sat back down. Our driver started up the truck and continued our tour.

At that point I was totally aware that the African elephant was the largest and most powerful mammal that walks the earth today. When I got home I decided that I wanted to write a children’s story about that particular elephant. I did the research and discovered that African elephants were quite different than Asian elephants. I named my elephant Rajah and started the story. I wanted to tell the children that power is important. Even more important is that we choose to use our power. If we use it for good than we can add goodness to our world. If we don’t we become bullies. And my story was ready to be born.