Little bit better than it used to be?
My kid is big into animals right now. I mean, every thought she has, awake or asleep, is about animals. I’m in awe at the veracity of her search for as much knowledge as she can get her sponge like brain on. She’ll watch one of the gazillion on demand cable shows available on Animal Planet, History Channel, National Geographic Channel, etc… and once credits roll, she immediately gets on one of the computers and starts searching for stuff on line.
She’s been nose deep in dinosaurs of late and as it is with her hereditary chattiness, asks quite a few questions about one thing or another since she is aware of my own fascination with dinosaurs.
This weekend as she read aloud from one of her many dinosaur books, I decided that she was ready to see the Steven Spielberg film ‘Jurassic Park’. I know the movie is light fare ala ‘E.T.’, but it’s a great movie for what it is. I absolutely love the book for all of the Ian Malcolm chaos theory stuff, but those discussions will come much further down the road for Mini Alva and me. For now, it’s all about seeing dinosaurs mix it up with people. So it was last night that we sat down after dinner, turned the volume up on the surround system, and watched ‘Jurassic Park’. Needless to say, Mini Alva loved it! She went to bed right after it finished and I fully expected to have her wander in during the night all scared from bad dreams, but my brave trooper proved me wrong and slept in past 9:30!!! I’m sure there are many questions she’s got for me and I can’t wait to answer them all.
I did have a thought this morning that gave me pause though… When I was a kid and first being exposed to the majesty and mystery of the dinosaurs, I spent many a night conjuring in my mind the world as it was 64 million years ago. I’d stare at photos and try to imagine what these gigantic creatures looked like moving around and coexisting with each other. These thoughts would occasionally wake me out of nightmares starring tyrannosaurs’ mauling some poor herbivore. It was a rare and splendid period in my adolescence when I actually enjoyed reading. The best animated look we got of dinosaurs was the wholly ridiculous claymation dreck of “Land of the Lost” on Saturday mornings and it never really got any better than that.
For Mini Alva, this is not the case of course. At seven, she has been to the American Museum of Natural History in NYC (experiencing the actual scope and size of dinosaurs) and five weeks later watched a strikingly realistic depiction of these beasts chasing and EATING people! I can’t help but think I’ve cheated her, even if it’s just a little bit, of a chance to conjure her own ideas of what life was like in the Jurassic period by handing it to her on a silver platter. On the other hand, if my dad had actually come home one night when I was her age with a movie like ‘Jurassic Park’ he’d have been more a hero than I already thought he was.
So, I don’t know. What do you think?
She’s been nose deep in dinosaurs of late and as it is with her hereditary chattiness, asks quite a few questions about one thing or another since she is aware of my own fascination with dinosaurs.
This weekend as she read aloud from one of her many dinosaur books, I decided that she was ready to see the Steven Spielberg film ‘Jurassic Park’. I know the movie is light fare ala ‘E.T.’, but it’s a great movie for what it is. I absolutely love the book for all of the Ian Malcolm chaos theory stuff, but those discussions will come much further down the road for Mini Alva and me. For now, it’s all about seeing dinosaurs mix it up with people. So it was last night that we sat down after dinner, turned the volume up on the surround system, and watched ‘Jurassic Park’. Needless to say, Mini Alva loved it! She went to bed right after it finished and I fully expected to have her wander in during the night all scared from bad dreams, but my brave trooper proved me wrong and slept in past 9:30!!! I’m sure there are many questions she’s got for me and I can’t wait to answer them all.
I did have a thought this morning that gave me pause though… When I was a kid and first being exposed to the majesty and mystery of the dinosaurs, I spent many a night conjuring in my mind the world as it was 64 million years ago. I’d stare at photos and try to imagine what these gigantic creatures looked like moving around and coexisting with each other. These thoughts would occasionally wake me out of nightmares starring tyrannosaurs’ mauling some poor herbivore. It was a rare and splendid period in my adolescence when I actually enjoyed reading. The best animated look we got of dinosaurs was the wholly ridiculous claymation dreck of “Land of the Lost” on Saturday mornings and it never really got any better than that.
For Mini Alva, this is not the case of course. At seven, she has been to the American Museum of Natural History in NYC (experiencing the actual scope and size of dinosaurs) and five weeks later watched a strikingly realistic depiction of these beasts chasing and EATING people! I can’t help but think I’ve cheated her, even if it’s just a little bit, of a chance to conjure her own ideas of what life was like in the Jurassic period by handing it to her on a silver platter. On the other hand, if my dad had actually come home one night when I was her age with a movie like ‘Jurassic Park’ he’d have been more a hero than I already thought he was.
So, I don’t know. What do you think?
posted by Tony Alva @ 2:05 PM
6 comments
6 Comments:
I think jurrasic park can make what you make up in your head even more vivid so not a bad decision at all. The question is...what if she's having those same thoughts about a t-rex mauling other dinosaurs and she just doesn't mind it?
I think you need a paternity test. Katie is way too smart to be your offspring! Come on, now, what is the liklihood of her punching a nun like you did when you were a few years older than her?
My son was into dinos for a few years. Awesome.
Next stop the Creationist Museum? "Daddy, how did the people get there? A Time machine?" "No, dear, ignorance."
My little sister and brother gave themselves dinosaur names last week. I guess it's contagious.
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