scurvyelephants

Taking Liberties - it's a free country, isn't it?

Last week, I trotted off to Chapter, my local arts centre, to watch an amazing little movie called 'Taking Liberties' (ad pictured above). I emerged from the auditorium lost for words - a rare occurance indeed. I put this down to 'shock'. If you are a Scurvy Elephant - member or not - I absolutely urge you to go and see this movie.

Here's the official website www.NoLiberties.com

Scurvy Elephants Society Update

So we have plenty of people joining the SES, but we've spotted what seems like a reluctance to participate in the email forum (Yahoo group) or send in scurvy stories, so this is what we are going to do...

We are going to drop the Scurvy Elephants Society Yahoo Group until such time that we have enough members to warrant an active bulletin board rather than an email forum.

We will start running 'blog carnivals' to encourage submissions from non-members too. Perhaps, over time, some will join up and submit direct to this space. We'll keep you posted. :o)

Announcing the official Scurvy Elephant Society Mantra

Back in November, new SES member Dug Black from Comboyne, NSW, Australia emailed the SES Yahoo Group to introduce himself.  In his message, Dug included an inspired poem he wrote in celebration of 'scurvy elephantness'.  Adrian and I loved it so much that, with Dug's permission, we are declaring it the official Scurvy Elephant Society Mantra. (Apologies Dug that it's taken me so long to post it here on the blog - a house move, the usual festive shenanigans and BT leaving me 'phonelineless' for over a month got the better of me!)  Anyway, without further delay... we present... the official SES Mantra by Dug Black:

Let us not go silently into the night
Let us not vanish without a fight
We shall go scurvily on
We shall be firm
Uphold the us the pachyderm…

Genius - thank you Dug!  I'm sure everyone is looking forward to more of your brilliant writing.  :o)

Becoming an SES Contributor

All Members are welcome to submit articles/features/snippets for inclusion on the SES blog.

Simply email your first submission to the email address at the top of the page.  Be sure to include a 'Biog' or 'Resource' passage at the foot of the article.  This can include up to 2 external links. (We would advise against including your email address as it encourages spam.)   Provided we feel the content will be of interest to fellow Members your contribution will be posted within one week.  If your post makes it through, your name will appear on the 'Contributors' section with a link to your bio and ultimately your own website.

What is a scurvy elephant?

We have Wayne Dyer to thank for identifying the 'scurvy elephant' personality type.

The story behind the phrase is suitably embellished by those who recount it, with perhaps little regard for the original version, but to worry about that is missing the point and here at the Scurvy Elephant's Society we celebrate that kind of thing! So here's another version...

Wayne Dyer came home from school one day and asked his mum, "What's a scurvy elephant?".  She told him she'd never heard of one and asked where he'd heard it. "From my teacher; he said I was a scurvy elephant." Bewildered, his mother called the teacher and asked what he had meant. The teacher responded, "As usual Wayne got it wrong. I didn't say he was a scurvy elephant; I said he was a disturbing element!"

I've no idea what Wayne's mum made of that, but it does sound negative, doesn't it? Until you consider that actually it’s good to question, to think for yourself and draw conclusions on life "independent of the good opinion of others." Dyer defines a scurvy elephant as "a person of unusual character who is characterized by the 'tribe' as out of step with 'normal' people."

This society was set up to celebrate and connect scurvy elephants everywhere.