“What’s an Elephant doing in our living room” He had just come down stairs and there it was, standing in the middle of the room!

“Chester “ in here”! “Did you bring this elephant home with you?”

His gangly teen age son came out from the kitchen where he had been gazing the shelves in the refrigerator for the last ten minutes, trying to decide whether he would eat the remains of a chocolate cake or freshly baked apple pie.

The boy look first at his father than the elephant ? “Whoa, what’s that doing here?” “I was hoping you can tell me!”
“I thought you brought it in!”

“No way!”

“Go get your mother and sister and bring them in here.”
His wife and daughter come in to the room and his daughter, Carmela sees the elephant and screams!! “What is that doing in here???”

Everyone is equally shocked and simultaneously amazed that somehow this huge elephant had gotten into their house without anyone knowing how.

“ What does this means!” The mother asked . “Chester “google” what an elephant in the living room means. Their eyes all turned to Chester now, including the elephant…

“ It is a metaphorical idiom in English for an important or enormous topic, question, or controversial issue that is obvious or that everyone knows about but no one mentions or wants to discuss because it makes at least some of them uncomfortable and is personally, socially, or politically embarrassing, controversial, inflammatory, or dangerous. “

“Well maybe there is something we need to talk about as a family that we are not” pipes up Carmela.

“What could that possibly be ?”, the mother asks.

“Is it that nobody wants to visit grandma we don’t want to admit it?” “No, I always love visiting grandma,” says Chester

“Is it that Carmela has bad choices in boyfriends but nobody wants to say it? “ I liked that boy Josh says Mom. He was a creep responds Carmela.

“Is it that Dad is unhappy in his job but nobody wants to talk about it?” No response

Is it that Chester plays too many video games, will never graduate from high school and end up living with us for the rest of his life?” “ I don’t play that many” Chester meekly responds

Is it that we are all bored with each other and would like to have different family members? Silence….No response

Is it that Dad & Mom move around each other in silence and nobody says anything? The silence continues….

Is it that Dad voted for Trump and Mom didn’t? “I still think the election was stolen from him” says dad. Mom rolls her eyes

After due consideration to those possibilities and others and with a number of defensive reactions to some of the suggestions… the family could not come up with an explanation

“Well this elephant isn’t a metaphorical idiom, it is standing right in front of us in our living room” The father finally said.

Sometimes an elephant in a living room is just….an elephant in the living room.

Chester call the zoo and tell them to come and pick this elephant up!