How to respond to the unexpected: yell "Elephant!"

November 6, 4:46 PMCincinnati Communication Skills ExaminerM.K. Jones

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The elephant on U.S. 81
AP Photo/Photographer Billy Hefton

No one can predict the future. Still, most of us try to remain flexible and prepare ourselves for any eventuality. However, on Wednesday near Oklahoma City, probably the last thing 68-year-old Bill Carpenter expected to happen, while driving home from church with his wife, was to hit a 4,500-pound elephant with his SUV. What are the odds? But that’s exactly what happened. (See washingtonpost.com.)

Later, Carpenter, a wheat farmer, said it blended right in with the road. While this is difficult to imagine, I believe him. Why would anyone intentionally hit an elephant? He told the police it was too late to hit the brakes. I love this visual: He just had time to yell “Elephant!” before he sideswiped it, breaking its tusk and injuring one of its legs. Don’t get me wrong, I feel bad for the four-legged beast, which was probably just as surprised as the driver. But things could have been much worse:

Though Carpenter and his wife weren’t injured, the elephant’s tusk rammed a hole through the SUV. If the elephant had stepped out any further, the vehicle would have knocked the animal over on top of the passengers, and, according to Bill, they would have been “history.”

The 29-year-old female pachyderm had escaped from the Family Fun Circus at the Garfield County Fairgrounds and was wandering across U.S. 81 in Enid Oklahoma when the crash occurred.  (See smh.com.au.)

I’m not really sure where communication skills come into play, here, except that Carpenter had the presence of mind to yell, “Elephant!” This may or may not have saved lives. Yes, I'm being a little facetious. Clearly synchronicity came into play.  They say “timing is everything,” and this was certainly true in this instance. A miracle? Maybe. We can speculate ad infinitum.

The one sure take-away is this: we never know when an elephant might cross our path, arguably, too late to avoid it. Of course, I’m using a figure of speech. But the world has become an unpredictable place, where things can happen fast. In this instance, instead of a tragedy, everyone has come away with an amusing story. The Carpenters, especially, have something to tell the grandkids.

How do the rest of us prepare for the totally unexpected? Examined from this perspective, our style of communication with others may play a role after all. I personally advocate projecting courage, kindness, and humor, whenever possible. I freely admit, it's sometimes easier to advocate these noble attributes than to practice them. But if we're trying to be our best selves when we collide with a twist of fate, we stand a better chance to prevail, perhaps even triumph.