Elephant Chains Minute

This Minute is meant for Scouts BSA.

At a circus, as a boy, I saw that a baby elephant was chained close to its mother with a metal ring around its ankle and a very heavy chain to a pole. The mother, though, had only a rope from her ankle to a pole. I wondered why they were tied up so differently.

I was told that the older elephants learned long ago as babies that they can not break free so they no longer try, even though the flimsy rope would be simple to break now. The baby doesn't know that yet so it needs to be chained securely. Over time, the baby will give up and stop trying.

If you find that you fail to do something, don't assume you'll never be able to do it. Try it again tomorrow or next week. Don't be held back any imaginary chains that stopped you when you were little, but you can now easily break.