Seeing, Breaking, and Fixing the Elephant

While cleaning the house yesterday, I knocked over a little carved stone elephant we acquired some years ago, and the darn thing broke into maaany pieces.  I really like this little bugger, so I decide to collect all the pieces and try put him back together.  All the king’s horses and all the king’s men weren’t necessary, just some superglue and a lot of patience.  It was very much like putting together a tiny three-dimensional jigsaw puzzle (he’s only about two and a half inches long).  And it wouldn’t be a project in our house if there weren’t a few pieces left over at the end that nobody can figure out where they belong.  All in all, though, I don’t think the end result turned out too shabby, especially considered the way it started.  If you don’t look too close, it looks just fine.  He’s going to live on a high shelf now.  And yes, that’s a little tiny elephant inside the big elephant–that’s why I like it so much.