Beethoven for Elephants - Thailand

Uploaded on Jan 12, 2011

I took my piano to the mountains of Kanchanaburi to play for some very old, injured and handicapped elephants, especially a blind elephant Plara immediately behind the piano

Elephants flap their ears to help keep cool in hot sun. The African elephant has ears about 3 times the size of an Asian elephant so they are better at it. Blood passed through the ear is cooled when flapping as it returns to the body.

- I was playing against the backdrop of 8 elephants munching bana-grass. Plara, the elephant behind the piano, had his tusks removed and sold by his previous owner so has a serious infection by his ears - that on top of being blinded by sharp branches carrying logs. No one was sure about the state of Plara's hearing and I played accordingly. Beethoven of all composers would have understood the need to consider Plara's hearing rather than be dogmatically correct.

Positive Psychology given credence by Academia:

Positive psychology is the scientific study of the strengths and virtues that enable individuals and communities to thrive.

Commentators on the subject Martin Seligman and Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, note that:

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