The Elephant and the Dog

Another in an occasional series of videos that retell Jataka tales:

Click on the image above to view the video on Vimeo.

As usual, full script is below….

Possum: I love those Jataka tales.

Sharpie: The stories that are supposed to be about one of Buddha’s previous lives?

Possum: Let’s act one of the Jataka tales out!

Possum: Once upon a time a Dog used to go into the stable where the Queen’s Elephant lived. By and by the Elephant and the Dog came to be great friends.

Elephant: Dog, would you like some of my food?

Dog: Yes, thank you!

Possum: Neither the Dog nor the Elephant was quite happy unless the other was nearby.

Elephant: It’s time to go to sleep.

Dog: I’ll sleep right here next to you.

Possum: One day, a farmer visited the Elephant’s Keeper.

Farmer: That’s a good looking dog. I’ll buy him from you!

Keeper: OK.

Possum: But the Queen’s Elephant missed the Dog.

Keeper: Here’s some nice food for you, Elephant.

Elephant: Oh, I’m not hungry.

Keeper: Um. How about a nice bath? You like baths.

Elephant: No thank you.

Possum: The third day, when the Elephant would neither eat nor bathe, they told the Queen.

Queen: Go to the stable and find out why the Elephant is acting in this way.

Servant: There seems to be nothing the matter with the Elephant. But why does he look so sad?

Keeper: Mm, there was a Dog who, uh, ate and slept and played with the Elephant. But the Dog, um, went away three days ago.

Servant: The Elephant is not sick. He is lonely without his friend, the Dog.

Queen: The offer a reward for the dog!

Possum: When the farmer who had bought the Dog heard this, the farmer let the dog loose. The Dog ran back to the Elephant’s stable as quick as she could go.

Dog: It’s dinnertime, Elephant.

Elephant: You eat first. I’m just so glad you’re back.

Possum: All the rest of their lives, the Elephant and the Dog lived happily together, the best of friends.

Possum: That’s a good story about how friends need each other.

Elephant: But why should Unitarian Universalists care about this story?

Sharpie: Unitarian Ralph Waldo Emerson said, “Who hears me, who understands me, becomes mine. Thus we weave social threads of our own, a new web of relationships.”

Possum: Friendship is a part of the interdependent web of existence!

Sharpie: Exactly.

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