beware of dinosaurs

My daughter is three years old. She would probably correct me and say, “three and a half” if she was doing fractions, but we’re focusing on geopolitics right now rather than math. Anyway, Miss M was playing quietly in the living room last night when she suddenly sat up with a very concerned expression on her face.

What’s wrong, sweetheart? 

Oh, no – dinosaurs! 

She bolted to the couch and climbed as fast as her little legs would go. In a display of siblingly-love, she called out to her little brother – “Zhee-zhee – dinosaurs!” He sat, bewildered, not sure if he should abandon Thomas the Tank Engine to a fate of dino-stomping.  (Side note – “Zhee-zhee” is one of those nicknames only a young sibling could create. We wouldn’t name our son “Zhee-zhee.” Not that there’s anything wrong with that.) 

All of this happened as I was watching the ongoing coverage of the incident in NYC involving the private plane crashing into an apartment building. The incident was tragic, no question. But I was listening to people on TV expressing concern about it being “another 9-11,” and it made me think about a few things. 

I travel to the NYC area with some regularity. My first trip came in November of 2001, and I’ve noticed that there is a heaviness that permeates the area. It’s a kind of fog that seems to hang over many of the people who live there. I doubt anyone would appreciate me saying so, but it is the smell of defeat. Or defeatism at least.  

I recognize that those who were in downtown Manhattan on 9-11 are likely to have flashbacks, and the oh-so-thorough coverage by the media of the events of that day served primarily to increase the psychosis of America’s already-most-psychotic city… 

But every now and then, I think how nice it would be if we could forget about the dinosaurs, even for a little while.