A transcript from a recent email to a dear friend in which I describe Rebecca's comments on dinosaur relations

I must preface this story by saying that Rebecca has recently "discovered"

dinosaurs. She calls them "dinos".

This morning, Rebecca woke up and she wanted me to read her a story. First

we read The Cat in the Hat (by read, I mean I tried to read as much text as

possible while she whipped through the pages). Then we read a Winnie the

Pooh story. Finally, she picked up a giant dinosaur book that had been

mine as a child. We start by looking at a page with a map of the world,

that shows where various fossils have been located. Then she flips to a

two page illustration. It shows a swampy area, lush with vegetation. The

sky is dark grey - there is obviously an ominous thunderstorm in the

offing. In the distance, a green herbivorous dinosaur is munching on some

ferns. In the foreground is a giant, fleshy Apatosaurus, standing in a

pool of water, it's eyes are shut, it has a grimace on its face, and its

long neck is curved back such that its head is somewhere over the middle of

its body. A large violent red and black striped Allosaurus is astride the

back of the Apatosaurus. The claws of its legs are digging into the ribs

of its prey. Little rivulets of blood are running from the talon puncture

marks. Its arms are wrapped around the lower part of the brontosaurus'

neck, and its jaws are firmly clenched on a higher part of the neck, where

Apatosaurus blood is now running freely. The Allosaurus is looking

directly at you with a most malevolent expression. A second Allosaurus

stands nearby, obviously hoping to join in the fun.

I wondered what she would think of this picture. There is so much

atmosphere and emotional content, I thought that she might find it scary.

I remembered a book on prehistoric animals that I had as a child. There

was one especially scary picture of a prehistoric shark. I was so afraid

to look at the page, that I had memorized its exact location so I knew when

I should skip a page.

She was not afraid.

She looked at the picture, she pointed to it and she said "hug!".

Indeed - the world is different through the eyes of a child.

It really cracked me up. :)