The Rice Myth
Dinosaur
When he was very young he waved his arms gneshed the teeth of his massive jaws and tromped around the house so that the dishes trembled in the china cabinet.” Oh for goodness sake”. his mother said. ”You are not a dinosaur. You are a human being.” Since he was not a dinosaur, he thought for a time that he might be a pirate. Seriously his father said at some point, what do you want to be?” A fireman then or a soldier. Some kind of hero. But in high school they gave him test and told him he was very good with numbers. Perhaps he would like to be a math teacher? That was respectable or a tax accountant? He could make a lot of money doing that. It seemed a good idea to make money what with falling in love and thinking about raising a family . So he was a tax accountant even though he sometimes regretted that it made him well small. And he felt even smaller when he was no longer a tax accountant but a retired tax accountant. Still worse a retired tax accountant who forgot things. He forgot to take the garbage to the curb forgot to take his pill forgot to turn his hearing aid back on. Every day it seemed he had forgotten more things important things like which of his children lived in San Francisco and which of his children were married or divorce.
Then one day when he was out for a walk by the lake he forgot what his mother had told him. He forgot that he was not a dinosaur. He stood blinking his dinosaur eyes in the bright sunlight feeling the familiar warmth on his dinosaur skin watching dragonflies flitting among the horsetails at the water’s edge.
When he was very young he waved his arms gneshed the teeth of his massive jaws and tromped around the house so that the dishes trembled in the china cabinet.” Oh for goodness sake”. his mother said. ”You are not a dinosaur. You are a human being.” Since he was not a dinosaur, he thought for a time that he might be a pirate. Seriously his father said at some point, what do you want to be?” A fireman then or a soldier. Some kind of hero. But in high school they gave him test and told him he was very good with numbers. Perhaps he would like to be a math teacher? That was respectable or a tax accountant? He could make a lot of money doing that. It seemed a good idea to make money what with falling in love and thinking about raising a family . So he was a tax accountant even though he sometimes regretted that it made him well small. And he felt even smaller when he was no longer a tax accountant but a retired tax accountant. Still worse a retired tax accountant who forgot things. He forgot to take the garbage to the curb forgot to take his pill forgot to turn his hearing aid back on. Every day it seemed he had forgotten more things important things like which of his children lived in San Francisco and which of his children were married or divorce.
Then one day when he was out for a walk by the lake he forgot what his mother had told him. He forgot that he was not a dinosaur. He stood blinking his dinosaur eyes in the bright sunlight feeling the familiar warmth on his dinosaur skin watching dragonflies flitting among the horsetails at the water’s edge.