This Little Guy in A Father's Hands, Hatched from the 'Dinosaur Eggs' His Daughter's Been Parenting

If you know John, a man who teaches Religious studies at Fairfield University, you quickly see he looks like a Nordic warrior or Russian wrestler. He has a fantastic beard, stands well above 6'6 and is a brilliant scholar. He's also an incredible landscaper and we've added his house on our trail of University professors' homes we hike by every day. Occasionally we find people out and about and we chat for a short bit.

I worked from 7 a.m. until 4 yesterday and decided to do the walk, listen to a book, and collect my thoughts before another 5 p.m. meeting. John and his wife were clipping plants outside as I walked by and their neighbor was discussing selling his home with them. John yelled to his daughter who was tending "dinosaur eggs in the backyard" to bring two that hatched out front. His daughter put water in two Gelato containers and returned shortly with , infant, red-ear sliders that they found while hiking.

As soon as his daughter brought them around front, John just started giggling....like tears in his eyes laughter. "They're just so frickn' cute," he said asking for her to put one in his hand. "Look at how tiny they are."

I wasn't expecting this, as John is a behemoth in a Hagrid-kind-of way. That's not an insult by any means. He's just a tall, fit man. Seeing him giggle and then get pure joy out of racing the turtles as if they were miniature matchbox cars simply made my day. "They're just so animated and tiny."

His daughter had similar joy.

It was a small moment of happiness in a very trying time that interrupted our conversation of University life, the importance of Black Lives Matter, the Covid-19 numbers, and the difference between the protestors, en masse, and the looters, much smaller, who exacerbate the trouble we all are living with right now.

The gentleness he displayed for his daughter, and the integrity he leads and lives with, are admirable. If only more of our species were like this, without the need for advocating militancy, superficial power, and insecure know-it-all-ness. I'll choose fledgling Trachemys scripts elegans over Homo sapiens any day...except when they are big tortoises and get to mating season, grunting those horrendous sounds. That always has me asking, "WTF?"


Today: Another day of writing and night of teaching. Wishing all well. This is a lot for everyone.