Differences and Friendship
Many ancient philosophers saw the differences between two friends to be essential for their friendship. Aristotle saw the value of differences between a pair of friends to be based on their mirroring effect. You can analyze yourself by comparing yourself to your friends. You might ask yourself what you admire in your friends, such as kindness or generosity, and whether or not you ought to aspire to the same virtues.

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“ELMER” by David McKee

Elephants are big, have trunks, and are gray. But what about Elmer, whose skin is covered with colorful patchwork? Elmer, by David McKee, tells the tale of an elephant who sticks out, both with his patchwork and his sense of humor, and how he and his community learns to accept and value his unique characteristics.

What a treat!  We get to listen to David McKee read his book, “ELMER”

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It seems that the modern world is more unstable than ever. With political upheaval and debate ongoing worldwide, it’s important have a positive role model in the public eye. And who’s to say that a role model can’t be a multicolored illustrated elephant?  So, what can we learn from Elmer?

“Elmer was different.  Elmer was patchwork.  Elmer was yellow and orange and red and pink and purple and blue and green and black and white.  Elmer was not elephant color”

Embrace difference

For those who don’t know Elmer, he is a multicolored elephant who lives happily among a grey herd, and after he tries and fails to hide his true self, he learns that his friends love him for his uniqueness.

Two Questions for your family discussion….

1.  What do you admire in your friends? Name a friend and one thing you like about them that’s also true about you, and one thing that you like about them that is not true about you.

2.  Do you want to be like your friends? In what ways?