Month: September 2021

I have a friend whose precious little boy has a thing for watching soccer games and enjoying anything related to dinosaurs. He’s got dinosaur shirts, toys, books and games. He loves visiting museums that house dinosaur bones and replicas. At four years old he has more knowledge of dinosaurs than most adults. 

I suppose that dinosaurs have fascinated humans for centuries. It’s almost impossible to imagine how massive they were and what it was like when they roamed the earth. One of the greatest mysteries of all time is why they seemed to so suddenly disappear. I’ve heard all sorts of theories for what contributed to their demise. Some hypothesize that they might have developed some kind of virus or that a gigantic asteroid hit the earth causing a kind of cataclysm. Others suggest that there was a protracted drought or conversely a dramatic freeze. Whatever it was, they left forever but evidence that they were here has been found across the globe. I suppose that their ultimate extinction makes them even more fascinating

I often wonder if it would have been possible for dinosaurs and people to coexist. Of course the movie Jurassic Park makes that seem unlikely. Having those massive creatures around would most certainly have had a profound effect on our own evolution and development of civilization. How would we have kept them at bay given their often enormous sizes and, in some cases, violent natures? Even the fittest humans would have had to be quite innovative to survive around those creatures.

We tend to take our tenure on this earth for granted as though it is a given, and yet the story of the dinosaur demonstrates that even such grand specimens are not immune to extinction. Our advantage is our ability to think, but unfortunately we do not always use that special gift of brain power as well as we should. Our intelligence has made us seemingly the masters of the planet. We have a kind of dominion over all the other creatures. We have even learned how to tackle tiny microbes that create disease, but we have weaknesses that could lead us to the same kind fate as the dinosaurs. 

The state of the world as this moment is revealing many of the flaws of our human responses. We are often tribal when we should be united instead. We fall prey to ignorance, pettiness, jealousies that lead us to disagreements and violence. We often abuse our planet and each other without thinking much about the ultimate consequences of our actions. We are much more intricate, interesting and incredible than the dinosaurs with their tiny brains and inability to think about changing in order to survive. Still, we sometimes act as though we are not any more intelligent than the giant reptiles who succumbed to whatever disaster made them extinct. We have to realize that many of our destructive tendencies have the potential of destroying us. Luckily there are always seem to be enough humans thinking ahead to keep themselves and most of the rest of us alive and well on this planet, but we have to be willing to listen to what they have to say.

I’m not much of a scientist myself, but I have great regard for those who are. While we humans need our arts, our literature and our music, it is within the realm of science, medicine and engineering that we will find our way out of the challenges that are seemingly overtaking us. We will get past the current pandemic because of science. We will solve the problems of climate change with the knowledge and innovations of researchers and engineers. Those of us who are not on the forefront of inventiveness must help each cause with a willingness to change our ways as needed. If we simply lumber along obliviously eating and sleeping and not allowing our intellect to guide us, we are ultimately doomed as a species. If we keep wasting our energies fighting rather than working our way out of our troubles then the future looks dark and difficult.

We have a tendency to blame individuals for our woes when in truth we are the culprits who are undermining the efforts of those who have the knowledge to guide us away from harm. We’d rather quibble and boast than do the heavy lifting that our current situation requires. It’s easy to call a world famous virologist “Dr Doom” because he tells us truths about Covid-19 that we do not want to hear, but we are unwilling to do a simple thing like wearing a mask to protect ourselves and others. We will smoke and drink and desecrate our environment and then worry that the vaccines that have been developed to help us are putting poisons into our bodies. We waste our earth’s resources without thought of the future. We do not alway use the brains that have brought humankind this far, but when we look back through history it should be clear that our hubris has all too often led us to the brink of destruction.

Dinosaurs are our teachers. We my not ever know exactly what happened to them, but we do realize that it had to be bad. We must learn from them that life on this earth can be uncertain. The world changes and we must be swift and flexible enough to adapt. Wishing for the past, building fences around ourselves and ignoring the truth of data is not the answer. We have to do better than that.

I am a collector of shoes. While I don’t quite rival Imelda Marcos, I do have more than my fair share of pumps and sneakers and boots and sandals. Sometimes I wonder if I enjoy shoes as much as I do because I had so few as a child. Back then I usually owned a pair of sensible school shoes and some cute flats for wearing to church and special occasions. In the summer I simply ran around in my bare feet. I wore my footwear until I either out grew them or they wore out. As an adult, my feet no longer change their size and so began my accumulation of a multitude of colors and styles. 

I’m a sucker for shoe stores and big sales on the latest trends in footwear. I find excuses for owning just one more pair of winter boots, even though it rarely gets very cold around here. In fact, as soon as the temperature brings a tiny chill, all of the ladies bring out the boots that tend to last forever because it is so rare to have the proper conditions for wearing them. 

Sadly I can no longer wear really high heels or shoes with pointy toes. My feet will be crying for mercy within an hour or so and I’ll be walking in my bare feet just to be able to still walk. Really flat soles are not good for me either. Still, I manage to find some cute shoes that have both style and comfort after I try on about a twenty pairs. 

Ironically you’d think that I am a shoe fashionista, but my all time favorite shoes are shockingly practical. I purchased them in a hardware store in Boerne, Texas when I was on vacation. They were the kind I had often dreamed of owning. You’ve no doubt seen the style before on farmers and others who labor in the mud and muck. I’m talking about a pair of black rubber boots that fit just past the top of my calves. They are made from thick ebony colored rubber like you might expect to find on tires. There is nothing glamorous about them, but I absolutely adore them!

I have a variety of hobbies including writing, reading, taking continuing education classes, and gardening. When I put on those boots I know that I am going to have a great day in my yard. I can haul and spread dirt, repot favorite plants, trudge through mud, and even reroute water that is flooding a section of my property. I feel like my grandmother Minnie who would deck herself out in denim overalls, a flannel shirt, a straw hat, and black rubber boots to tackle the planting and harvesting of the crops on her farm. Best of all I can simply run my boots under a stream of water from the hose to get them as clean as if they were new.

I know lots of women get really cute rubber boots with patterns of little ducks or flowers or some such thing, but I want the black ones that show how serious I am about the work that I do when I garden. It’s not a task for the weak of heart. I get dirt under my fingernails and sweat on my neck. Best of all I feel born again and as though the little cells of serotonin are having a happy party in my brain. 

I don’t know if it’s genetic or if I simply love working outside with my plants because it reminds me so much of my fabulous grandmother. My thumb is not nearly as green as hers was, but I do a better than middling job of keeping the landscape looking rather lovely. I think that I would really miss the workout that I get planting and weeding if I were ever to become too feeble to continue my labor.

My grandmother kept up her yard even after she was diagnosed with cancer. She moved to a home close to the Medical Center in Houston and used the months when she was still okay to turn it into a paradise even though she was eighty eight years old. It must have been horrific for her when she finally lacked the strength to enjoy her favorite pastime. I suppose that is when she realized that her time on this earth was coming to an end.

I’ve had my black rubber boots for decades now. You would never know how old they are or how much of a workout I have given them. They sit in my garage faithfully waiting until I need them, and even though they are inanimate I hope they know how much I like them. 

I’ve never again seen a pair of heavy duty black rubber work boots in a size small enough to fit my feet. I don’t know what I would do if something happened to them. I suppose I’d have to go to the Internet to find another pair. For now, they are just fine and will always be my favorite pair of shoes.