LIVE FREE FROM RESTRAINTS
During the show, the huge beast made a display of weight, size and enormous strength .. but after its performance and until a while before returning to the stage, the elephant was held only by a chain that imprisoned one of its legs to a small stake stuck in the ground.
However, the stake was just a tiny piece of wood barely buried a few inches in the ground. And even though the chain was thick and powerful, it seemed obvious to me that this animal, capable of plucking a tree of rennet with its own force, could easily tear off the stake and flee.
When I was five or six years old, I still trusted the wisdom of the great. I then asked some teacher, some father or some uncle about the mystery of the elephant. Some of them explained to me that the elephant did not escape because he was trained. Then I asked the obvious question: if he is trained ..., why are they chained? I do not remember having received any coherent answer.
Eventually I forgot the mystery of the elephant and the stake ... and only remembered it when I met others who had also asked the same question. Some years ago I discovered that luckily for me someone had been wise enough to find the answer: "The circus elephant does not escape because it has been tied to a similar stake since it was very small." I closed my eyes and imagined the little newborn subject to the stake.
I'm sure that moment the elephant pushed, pulled and sweated trying to let go, and despite all his effort he could not. The stake was certainly very strong for him. I would swear that he slept exhausted and that the next day he tried again, and also the next day and the one that followed.
Until one day, a terrible day for its history, the animal accepted its impotence and resigned itself to its destiny. This huge and powerful elephant does not escape because it BELIEVES IT CAN NOT. He has record and memory of his helplessness, of that impotence that is felt shortly after birth. And the worst thing is that this record has never been seriously questioned again. Never, ever ... he tried to test his strength again.
source
Each one of us is a bit like that elephant: we go around the world tied to hundreds of stakes that deprive us of freedom. We live believing that a lot of things "we can not" simply because we once tried and could not. We record in our memory: I can not ... and I can never. We grew up carrying that message that we imposed on ourselves and never tried again. The only way to know, is to try again, trying all your heart.