NATURAL HISTORY

The question that always enters your mind (like a gentle white wave on the ocean) and only when you are in the natural history museum is:

Is it better to be an insect encased in amber for 100 million years or is it better to be a fish, one with a lot of bones, in a basalt lava fossil for 100 million years?

The good news is that: either way, you get to be in a shiny glass case in the natural history museum for at least a few hundred years and you are safer than ever for a while and also you get to watch those camera flash bulbs, which must seem something like a kaleidoscope effect, especially if you are in amber, like a million sparkling gold or moutard-dijon mustard colored stars, hypnotizing in their brilliance. You don’t see much like that in some jungle or at the bottom of the ocean floor! Great if you are a fish, better still if you are in amber–much flashier and more dramatic.

So I guess the answer is that it is better to be an insect in amber. Especially if you like sparkles, and you dig attention and light. And if you get to choose. Either way, 100 million years might seem like a really long time, but if that is as long as you have been around, it just seems like as long as you can remember. Besides, after a while, the days really start to blend together.

all artwork, including monsters but not old timey photographs,
® mr. crispy flotilla, 2007