Have you ever heard that expression? An elephant in a china shop. The first time I heard it, it puzzled me a little because I could not imagine seeing an elephant inside a shop full of glassware, but the idea kept turning over in my mind.
When I imagined the size of an elephant and the space it would take up inside a glassware shop, all I could think of was the chaos about to unfold there. I imagined broken glass everywhere, the shopkeeper with his hands on his head, unable to understand why an elephant was inside his business and unable to control the chaos it was causing as it moved around. And the elephant, absorbed in itself, oblivious to the trail of destruction it was leaving behind.
I know many two-legged elephants who leave the same chaos behind. They are not as big as an elephant, but their egos are. These human elephants in china shops trample and sweep aside everything and everyone in their path, driven by their egos, believing their version of the story is the only valid one and that they are always right.
These giants of ego, lacking empathy, break everything in their path without looking back, leaving trails of destruction and desolation. If they ever happen to look back—which very rarely occurs—they see the disaster they have left behind, but of course it will not be their fault. They will look for someone to saddle with their responsibility, because they are the biggest creatures in the animal kingdom, and anything that comes from them is always the best.
It is very easy to become an elephant in a china shop if we believe we are always right, if we always want to be right. With that attitude, we will create chaos and destruction, and when we look around, we will find ourselves alone—not because others failed to keep up with us, but because we destroyed everyone who wanted to walk alongside us.
Take a minute at the end of the day to look back on the good you have done for someone that day. If you cannot find any, you may be the one making your way through the china shop.
“In the midst of movement and chaos, keep stillness within you.”
Deepak Chopra