A tale of 2 textures

At the time of taking this photo I was surprised by the result showcasing the texture of the elephant’s skin. While it has “major” wrinkles it also has minor wrinkles on the “islands” created by the major wrinkles. Both the major and minor wrinkles has been flattened out on the top of the tail, as the elephant uses this area to rub against trees.  This aspect – the texture of an elephant’s skin – may sometimes be overlooked or not specifically being focused on. It contributes to the ruggedness of their appearance and is certainly not deemed ugly⇓

⇑While sitting on a bench in my garden, I was reminded about my time at the Kruger National Park where I took the photo of the elephant. Amazingly a different type of elephant came trod-ding along in my garden. Fortunately I had my camera with me and was able to also take photos of its skin. You will notice that while there is a similarity in the skin  (major wrinkles creating islands), the overall appearance is quite different. Well this must be because the city elephants here in Africa has a different diet which impacts their skin. It could also be that due to my diet I was dreaming and when I woke up my coffee was cold. Okay okay I admit their is no such thing as an African city elephant and if there was, it wasn’t in my garden.

So lets get back to the facts: I wás sitting in my garden on the bench and I díd take the photo in my garden. This is in fact the skin of a different animal being an pony. No really I promise it is a  pony – a ponytail palm in fact…  Which changes the “skin” into bark (but not of my dog).  My daughter and her boyfriend arrived and I told them about the comparison I am to do for the challenge and showed him the photo directly above on the camera. He asked me if this is the elephant’s skin (but then he is an engineering student and we all know they are a bit daft 🙂 ) If our roles were reversed, I wonder if I would have been accurate in my deduction…

⇓The “pony” was growing in an island created by yours truly using these wooden stumps, which have quite a different texture to the tails. The texture was enhanced by moss growing on it, yet I find the “bare” stump on the left with its star-like crevasses and aged age rings also beautiful. I wondered why the moss grew on the one but not the other but water probably drips on the piece of wood on the right from the palm above, while it does not drip on the left.

We are in a world where a lot is made of outward appearances. Moss in all its human equivalents from cosmetics to surgical is used to cover the age “rings”. The looks of an elephant is enhanced by its wrinkled appearance  – can that be said of a lady? I do believe we should look after our health and appearance but if a worldview is built around appearance it is a very shallow world. Age brings texture to the way we think, act and appear. While the majority of people probably want to appear younger, personally I think you will appear younger if you are active and do worthwhile things even if your appearance has been textured by age.

But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The Lord does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.”        1 Samuel 16:7