If Dinosaurs Walked the Earth, and Children Were in Charge



By Susan Stratton

I had a strange dream last night. Children of various ages, mostly those old enough to fend for themselves, ran from building to building in search of hidden underground locations to hide momentarily from monster-size dinosaurs roaming the earth above. Huge creatures stomped from town to town, city to city as the children oddly seemed to know where the safe locations were but within various stages of the dream every 'safe' basement became a demolished site of rubble after the dinosaur quickly turned and crushed his intended prey. Luckily, the children would run to the next building just in time, escaping certain death.

In the confines of the dream the children were fearful but calm; almost as if their fear had turned into organized resolution to survive the horrible circumstances of their existence. As I awoke and contemplated the details of the dream I thought how odd it was to see children so resolute in their determination to help one another despite the fact that great tragedy had obviously taken away all the adults from the scenario. Perhaps they were too preoccupied with their survival to grieve the loss of their parents or perhaps the dream took place in a future where all the adults had been killed only a few years ago by a strange disease attacking those over the age of sixteen. That would give justification for the buildings I'd seen and other constructive technology existent within the illusionary world. Of course, children could build houses and provide for their own means if necessary but the structures were way too old and too big to suggest they were created by small hands. Either way, it was certain the dream had a science fiction angle; not an uncommon preference in my choice of entertainment but an unusual disturbance in my nightly dreams.

Now if one devles further into the dream, we can imagine a world where the older children are leading the younger, more dependent, children to a possible future away from danger. After the initial survival period of running away from the dinosaurs the children come to the concrete solution of finding a place where safety will be permanent rather than momentary and life can progress to a state of happiness. Just as our forefathers wanted the right to pursue happiness, these tired and destitute children would have to form a community all their own and soon being a 'child' would no longer be an option. In fact, childhood had already been stolen from them by the death of their parents. Now they were the ones in charge and their little minds and former self-preoccupied natures would have to formulate adult decisions. The speculation on the odds of their ultimate survival is now in question.

While most of us probably believe humanity can surpass any obstacle (most of all children, who are normally optimistic), I took this dream and mentally placed it, like tracing paper, over the vision of modern society. We can easily see our own children or those mirrored in the nightly news, as they battle against the dino-sized illegal drug industry and sexual immorality of our age. We see them influenced by the T-Rex-sized music ads with baby face pop-stars and devoured by the relentless canivorous commerials of materialistic gratification. Our pre-teens are taught indirectly at school, of all places, to wear skimpy clothing and the right to “choose” — even if that means killing an unborn child in the process.

In the psychology of the dream, it would appear thus that despite the many spiritual dangers threatening our children that humanity itself has a natural aversion to darkness. As in the dream, the children flee from dino-destruction with a sense of hope and future achievement. They may stray into unsafe territories by mistake (or in the case of real-life temptation, by choice), but instinct quickly calls them home again to the desires of security and spiritual happiness. Those of us with age on our bones know that true security and whole-hearted happiness do not come from the attachment to things nor to the short-lived pleasures of the flesh. So perhaps this dream had another lesson to teach: that as an adult we can often forget the freedom of childhood which more often than not seeks the good and holy. If we then have forgotten how to find goodness, we must remember what it was like to be children again.



(Susan Stratton is a stay-at-home mom and the Respect Life Chairperson of her parish, St. Agnes Catholic Church in Pittsfield, Maine. She also maintains the webiste of Baby Bunny Memorial. In her spare time, she freelances as an apologist on the web.)

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