AuthorSharon Eden-Smith (@sharonedensmith) is the entrepreneur who established Eden-Smith Music. She will be posting blog articles about the business of... 
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Practical jokes are a part of the workplace. When innocently done, they can solidify relationships & increase morale. Even my youngest music students enjoy pulling pranks on me. One cute joke pulled at Eden-Smith Music was placing the "easy" button (seen in the photo above) on my chair. When I sat down, the words, "That was easy!", issued from beneath my rump, much to the delight of my little prankster.
When my colleague was an elephant, the prank was much larger. In most cases, calling a colleague "an elephant" is not an appropriate statement. When I worked as a Naturalist Interpreter at the Calgary Zoo, however, my colleague, literally, was an elephant. One of my jobs was to give a 10 minute talk at the elephant meet and greets. I would describe to zoo visitors some of the elephant behaviors that they were witnessing, as they touched 1 (or more) of the 3 female elephants living at the Calgary Zoo. I always opened the animal talk with a description of how female elephants greet each other in the wild. That was an easy opener because my elephant colleagues would always greet me first when the talk began. A trunk would be extended so that I could give a gentle puff of air into it. In return, the elephant would gently puff air back out at me. This is the equivalent of a handshake or a friendly "Hello!" in an elephant herd. On one occasion, just after I gave a puff of air into an extended trunk, the elephant took a deep breath & proceeded to exhale the entire contents of her mucous filled trunk all over me. Along with the mucous came bits of her breakfast, pieces of her snack, some dirt & pebbles that she had picked up to throw on her back as sunscreen and some unidentifiable squishy items that easily stuck to my uniformed front. The zoo keeper burst out laughing, as did the zoo visitors. My elephant colleague's eyes gleamed with delight. The corners of her mouth appeared to turn up in a wry smile. She had successfully pulled a practical joke on me, within the 1st thirty seconds of the elephant encounter. That meant that the mucous on my shirt and everything else embedded in it had ample time to dry in the hot sun and gentle summer breeze. Since I had no clean uniform at my disposal, I had the honor of wearing my mucous encrusted shirt for over 5 hours, as I completed my shift for the day. I smelled like the inside of an elephants trunk, a fact that did not go unnoticed by the other Calgary Transit riders on my commute home.
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AuthorSharon Eden-Smith (@sharonedensmith) is the entrepreneur who established Eden-Smith Music. She will be posting blog articles about the business of...
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Poop happens! It always has. It always will. It is an inevitable part of life. The question for me is not, "Will it happen?", but "What will I do when it happens?".
Poop happens at Eden-Smith Music when a student does not listen, refuses to work or is distracted. It can also occur when there is a disconnect between the student or parental expectations & mine. As the owner & teacher, I need to find a way to restore the proper balance for the smooth running of my business. I must recognize the prior knowledge & other relationships of all stake holders. This decreases the poop & ensures that my relationships at Eden-Smith Music do not become constipated. I can best illustrate this fact through an experience that I had while working as a Naturalist Interpreter with the Calgary Zoo. There were five, full-time, Naturalist Interpreters hired that summer. Four of us were female. Of those 4, three of us had long hair that we wore in a ponytail. Whenever 1 of the 3 was scheduled to give a talk at the outside gorilla enclosure, the male, juvenile gorilla of the troop would hear the female voice over the PA system, see the uniform & ponytail and display dominance behavior. He would run around, beat his chest & swing from the structures. He would throw poop at us. We quickly learned to duck & dodge. His behavior was distracting & a nuisance, until I heard his story. He had been found in the wild as a baby. His entire troop was killed by poachers. He was sent to a zoo where he encountered a young, female zookeeper who wore her hair in a ponytail at work. She introduced him to the troop at her zoo. She, with the help of the gorillas in the troop, showed him his role as a young gorilla and helped him belong. He was eventually sent to the Calgary Zoo. It was at the Calgary Zoo where he entered gorilla puberty. In the wild, juvenile, male gorillas split off from their troops. They travel in gangs, learning how to fight & defend themselves. They also learn posturing & dominance behaviors during this time to avoid encounters that could lead to injury. This is an important process for those that will become the dominant Silverbacks. They will be required to defend the harem & the offspring in their care. I was witnessing natural behavior at the Calgary Zoo. I was part of that natural behavior. The young, male gorilla associated me with his first zookeeper who had given him a new home & showed him how to belong. He wanted my attention so he threw poop at me. He was a normal, male juvenile. At the time, this gorilla was the hope of conservation efforts around the world. He represented the introduction of new genes into a captive population. It was crucial that he showed regular behavior, not only for his health, but for the health of the entire captive, gorilla population globally. He would become the Silverback of a troop within a zoo, somewhere in the world, when he reached maturity. Once I knew this, I discovered that he provided me with segues into discussing the necessity of the structures within the enclosure. He became the main character in the dramas of my talks. His poop slinging abilities, along with my necessity to duck & dodge as I spoke, gave weight to the animal conservation efforts around the world. That juvenile gorilla showed me, by physically throwing poop at me, that things are not always as they first appear to be. Many times, there is a story behind behaviors that will explain the behaviors. If I discover the story, I will see the reason for the poop. He also taught me how to honor the past experiences & relationships of others and recognize that poop will inevitably be a part of the entire relationship process. Because of that young, juvenile, male gorilla at the Calgary Zoo, I have a profound respect for "when poop happens" and for my need to find a way to duck & dodge it.
If you enjoyed this article, let me know. Post a comment! Like it! Tweet it!
You may also want to read another article in this series:
"Follow" or "Like" Eden-Smith Music on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or LinkedIn. That way, you'll get the news as to when the next blog post is up!
Subscribe to the Eden-Smith Music Youtube channel for the latest Eden-Smith Music videos. Click on a social media icon, below, to take you where you want to go!
Click on the Button below if you want to go to the Eden-Smith Music Blog Index for more articles to read!
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AuthorSharon Eden-Smith (@sharonedensmith) is the entrepreneur who established Eden-Smith Music. She will be posting blog articles about the business of...
@edensmithmusic
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November 2019
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