Look Up: Lucy the Elephant

When you first meet Lucy the Elephant, you can’t help but look up.  I first met her when M and I took a two-week vacation in Ocean City, New Jersey in September of 2008.  I had been looking forward to that meeting as I’d heard a lot about Lucy from friends.

Unfortunately I have some not-so-great associations with that trip as that was when my mother was diagnosed with small-cell lung cancer.  We were still in denial hopeful mode at that point with no real understanding of what was to come.  I usually try to write a little about the area or the attraction I’m posting about but Lucy will be like the sunflowers that captivated me a year later when my mother was dying, forever associated with Mom, her illness, and her death.  I’m just beginning to be able to look at, remember, think about, and (maybe) write about that time and those things in a way that I hope will transform the way I see them and life in general.

I don’t want to take all the fun out of Lucy (and she is a fun gal!).   I did write about Lucy and her history as a guest post at Stevo’s place, Asian Ramblings.  You can find it here if you’re interested.  Or you can do a web search which I’m sure will turn up plenty of information about the big, tall, and glorious Lucy.

I have to admit that looking at Lucy’s butt up there does remind me that Lucy is about kitsch and fun along with the old joke:

Why don’t elephants smoke?
Because their butts don’t fit in the ashtray.

So maybe this Look Up themed post will help me appreciate Lucy for Lucy and blend in the bad memories the way we do with life in general.  Blending them in is important, I think.  Otherwise it would be too easy to get out of balance, leaning in one direction or another, good or bad, without appreciation for both the ups and downs.  I know it’s difficult to appreciate the downs but I also know we learn a lot from them and sometimes those downs lead to some mighty good ups.

Well, enough philosophizing from me.  I’m sure most of my visitors don’t come here for that (since I generally try to avoid it here at ye olde blog).  How about another look at Lucy?

She’s pretty cool, isn’t she?

8)