A story about Tooty the Elephant
Let me tell you a Fluffy Gardens story about Tooty the Elephant. One day, Tooty the rather sporty elephant found himself some place he had never been before – at the bottom of a cliff. What was above the cliff, he had no idea.
But he wished, and he imagined that it would be a new place to exercise – a huge exercise park for everyone to enjoy!
He imagined running, jumping, lifting, throwing. Imagination can be wonderful. Especially for children, but also for the grown-ups among us. We can dream amazing things. That’s fantastic, isn’t it? That’s a good thing.
But Tooty wasn’t content to just stand at the bottom of the cliff. He wanted to see for himself. He took a ladder and made his way up the cliff and found…
Nothing.
Well, nothing interesting. Just grass. Well, it was fun to dream, wasn’t it? Took his mind off his troubles for a while.
Tooty’s story didn’t end there.
No. Tooty had dreamed a dream and that was wonderful. But he wasn’t the type to lose himself in a dream. What good is a dream on its own? So Tooty did the only thing he felt he could – he got some help and worked very hard, doing all he could to turn his dream into a reality. And, soon, it was reality. And it was fantastic.
Imagination is wonderful. Children already have great imaginations. They don’t need help with that. Adults? I don’t know. I still meet plenty of adults with great imaginations. And certainly we have no trouble losing ourselves in imagined worlds of films and games. We’re still pretty good at imagination. It’s what comes next that seems more difficult.
“There’s nothing I can do”
“That will never work”
“That’s just the way things are”
None of these statements are true. Oh, if you work at it you can make them true. And some people might want them to be true. Responsibility takes effort, it’s not easy. There is a comfort in having low expectations. Still, on their own, those statements are false. And, in spite of the world’s ills, the ‘economy’ and fear of what will happen if we don’t continue with the failing status quo, there are people proving them false every single day.
So, whatever your exercise park is, that thing you dream of doing that you think could make things better for not just you, but everyone, please don’t just let it be a dream. Please make it real. Please do it for me. Because if you don’t, the children who see that Tooty episode will grow up thinking I was a dirty rotten liar and I really don’t want that.
A jolly good post Jay, and I second your hopes for all who read it.
What of your own dreams? Is your dream to continue doing what you’re doing or to do something else in due course?
For me, I think the dream is, yes, to continue doing what I’m doing… but better. Better content for children that makes a positive contribution, content that works with parents. I’d love to expand into books (in many ways, I think books are far better for young children because, by their very nature, they require an adult present).
And I’d love to help others make good content for children too, so the number of people out there trying to really contribute rises.
Not an easy dream but I’m pushing in the right direction.
Sounds like a great dream to me. Anything that encourages parents and children to spend time together has to be worthwhile. There are too few things like that around these days.