An elephant never forgets
Dr. Ken Hope | TLT President's Report March 2022
We can’t remember everything, but it’s important to access the best information.
Ken Hope’s visit to Chiang Mai, Thailand, where he witnessed elephants paint.
I’m not sure if it’s true or not, but most of us have heard the saying: “An elephant never forgets.” I remember this quote from Disney’s “Jungle Book.” It makes me wonder how great it would be if we had such wonderful memories and never forgot things like people, places, car keys and eyeglasses! We are becoming very good at searching out information, and this is in line with my last TLT column on the importance of knowledge retention and education. The next difficult task is accessing that information readily when it is needed.
Meanwhile, back to the elephants. I visited Thailand in 2018, Chiang Mai specifically, and there was a place where we could watch elephants paint. You read that correctly. We were all astonished at the talent of these amazing creatures creating and displaying their artistic skills. Now, I’m not bad with stick figures, but asking for more than that from me is like asking my dog to write this column. The actual photo taken during this art exhibition is shown here. We watched in amazement while the elephant grasped a paintbrush and started painting an image of another elephant. It was very cute and astonishing. I was without words. They then played soccer and gave us a ride across a river. Just when you think you know something, there is still room to be astonished in this world—and in a good way!
We cannot remember everything, and we know that education is one of the many benefits that is available to STLE members—and also a key feature that STLE offers. One thing that you might want to remember, like an elephant, is where to find the knowledge at
www.stle.org. The STLE Learning Pathways is a body of knowledge that has been collected and peer-reviewed by experts in the field. This offers different levels of basic, intermediate and advanced content.
STLE also offers TLT Archives at
www.stle.org, a great searchable reference tool for TLT articles. If you can’t remember a specific title to an article, type the topic in the Keyword Search box in the upper right corner, and many articles on the subject will pop up. You also can find previous TLT articles through popular search engines like Google and Yahoo.
So, search out what will make you a better expert in your area, hone your skills and share your knowledge. We all have a part to play, but make sure you have the right tools and skills. To find out more, please go to
www.stle.org.
Dr. Ken Hope, CLS, is global PAO technical services manager for Chevron Phillips Chemical in The Woodlands, Texas. You can reach him at ken.hope@cpchem.com.