The idea of this idiom is that literally an elephant in the room would be impossible to overlook for obvious reasons. Therefore people who avoid the literal elephant in the room have chosen to avoid dealing with a problem or issue.
My family is the “Family Meeting” type of people. If something bothers us, my dear Mom calls a “Family Meeting”. Here we have a chance of voicing our opinion, so I barely deal with an elephant in the room when it comes to family issues.
Although some of my friends do have issues. Not everyone is perfect and we know this. We all are very different and that leads to choices and personality differences. Do you address the elephant in the room or do you let it pass? We sometimes have these incidences for example - one of our girlfriends showing us a dress which doesn’t suite her body type perfectly, another with a new boyfriend or girlfriend. What do you do? Be honest and hurt their feelings or smile and say it’s great?
I guess experience and age will show what is better in certain situations.
THE ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM
By Terry Kettering
There’s an elephant in the room.
It is large and squatting,
so it is hard to get around it.
Yet we squeeze by with,
“How are you?” and, “I’m fine,”
and a thousand other forms of trivial chatter.
We talk about the weather;
we talk about work;
we talk about everything else—
except the elephant in the room.
There’s an elephant in the room.
We all know it is there.
We are thinking about the elephant
as we talk together.
It is constantly on our minds.
For, you see, it is a very big elephant.
It has hurt us all, but we do not talk about
the elephant in the room.
Oh, please, say her name.
Oh, please, say “Barbara” again.
Oh, please, let’s talk about
the elephant in the room.
For if we talk about her death,
perhaps we can talk about her life.
Can I say, “Barbara” to you
and not have you look away?
For if I cannot,
then you are leaving me alone
in a room—with an elephant.
By Terry Kettering
There’s an elephant in the room.
It is large and squatting,
so it is hard to get around it.
Yet we squeeze by with,
“How are you?” and, “I’m fine,”
and a thousand other forms of trivial chatter.
We talk about the weather;
we talk about work;
we talk about everything else—
except the elephant in the room.
There’s an elephant in the room.
We all know it is there.
We are thinking about the elephant
as we talk together.
It is constantly on our minds.
For, you see, it is a very big elephant.
It has hurt us all, but we do not talk about
the elephant in the room.
Oh, please, say her name.
Oh, please, say “Barbara” again.
Oh, please, let’s talk about
the elephant in the room.
For if we talk about her death,
perhaps we can talk about her life.
Can I say, “Barbara” to you
and not have you look away?
For if I cannot,
then you are leaving me alone
in a room—with an elephant.
Another wonderful post.
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