Jimmy and the Dinosaur

When I was in third grade, I fell madly in love with Jimmy Munson. He was cute, athletic, funny and popular. What else would an eight year old girl require in a soul mate? I was not even repulsed by the fact that Jimmy loved dinosaurs. (Wayne, on the other hand, loved snakes, which was just weird. I wouldn’t be at all surprised if Wayne grew up to be an ax murderer or something.) I hadn’t thought of either of those boys in years, perhaps even decades. That state of affairs changed when I read the dinosaur chapter in Italo Calvino’s entertaining little book, Cosmicomics. This book is a fiction work about science, but it is not science fiction. Instead, Cosmicomics is an insider’s look at some of the great mysteries of science, as revealed by a character named Qwfwq (take my advice, spare yourself the bother of learning a foreign language and just pronounce it K-Fuck).

In the dinosaur chapter, Qwfwq describes how it feels to be the last dinosaur. He is surrounded by a new species of creatures that never knew the dinosaurs. Instead, they have received, and continue to transmit, distorted myths about the sorts of creatures the fearsome, grotesque dinosaurs must have been. Qfwfq lives among these New Ones, yet never reveals his identity. He sort of fits into an evolving world, yet is always slightly aloof from it. He has a love affair, yet cannot sustain long-term intimacy and companionship. Qwfwq is not alone, yet he suffers from nearly unbearable loneliness. In the end, however, Qwfwq finds solace in two things. First, he recognizes that the evolving dinosaur legends, which raise the creatures to mythic, even heroic, status, will long outlive and overshadow the realities of what their mundane lives actually had been. Second, upon meeting a young creature whom he recognizes as his own son, Qwfwq realizes that he has been the bridge between two species. He is the lone surviving relic of an extinct group. His son, who bears the unmistakable imprimatur of his dinosaur heritage, identifies completely with the New Ones. Qwfwq realizes that this is as it should be. And, perhaps, he also realizes that the dinosaurs will never die completely. They will be transformed, certainly, but their heirs will continue to dominate the world, just as their forebears did. As the tale ends and Qwfwq loses himself in a crowd, the reader senses that Qwfwq has finally become comfortable being exactly who he is. He may be alone again, but he’s not lonely anymore.

I lost track of Jimmy (and Wayne) after the seventh grade. I imagine they have been busy raising their families, just as I have been (Wayne probably is not an ax murderer; he was a pretty nice kid, except for the snake thing). I wonder if they’ve passed on their childhood passions, just as I’ve passed on my passions for baseball and music to my children? I doubt that any of us will play the sort of pivotal role that Qwfwq played in the dinosaur tale. Jimmy, Wayne and I don’t belong to a species on the brink of extinction (unless we blow ourselves to smithereens or drown ourselves under rapidly melting glaciers). What we can share with Qwfwq is joy in being fully engaged in the adventure of life. We will continue living our lives and we will continue passing on our accumulated wisdom, passions and dreams to those who come after us. They, in turn, will keep the pattern going for countless generations to come. And life will continue going on and on and on….

– the chaplain