A DINOSAUR (February 13, 2013)

Three men and a woman in their early twenties are sitting next to me in the Kolding Caffe and shuffling through piles of papers on their table. I pay them little attention, but I figure that they are preparing for an exam. The papers are course notes, previous exam questions, chapters copied from textbooks, and the like. I think they are studying biochemistry. All of a sudden, they burst into laughter. “Get this,” one of the men guffaws and gawks at his friends, “that was in 1946!” They seem to be be referring to some important discovery in their field, but the year itself must strike them as belonging to ancient history. Having been born that very year, I must seem to them as ancient history, as well. Nay, a dinosaur. Funny, this is how I now feel, too.