DRACOS

Shapeless and without detail, I am not feeling particularly human at the moment, just a creature breathing in and breathing out. I might as well be something left over from prehistory, or perhaps a manatee, except for my bathrobe, which I wear because it’s chilly. I’m old, tired, doing no harm I am aware of, making things out of words, but often undone these dreadful days by our all too human inhumanity, about which I can do nothing. Recently however I discovered a creature that fills with me with wonder and joy: the presence right now on this earth of tiny flying dragons! I am late to this party, but greatly cheered by their existence. They live in the Phillipines, Borneo, India.

Dracos are lizard-like creatures with long skinny bodies, four skinnier limbs with finger like extensions that look no wider than the hairs on my head, a tail that goes on forever, and from whose sides extend not wings, but delicate membranes of different colors, enabling them to glide maybe 180 feet before making a perfect three point landing. I have no idea what a three point landing consists of, only that I am incapable of making one, as I am incapable of much beyond hanging out in this chair. Dracos are so weird, you have to pinch yourself to believe your eyes. But they are real. There are lots and lots of them. And they do no harm except to unlucky ants, unlucky termites that come their way. Their existence thrills and humbles and shocks the hell out of me. It is suddenly obvious that everything isn’t all about us. I’m so tired of us and the damage we do to the earth, and to each other. We are not all there is, we are not the big deal we think ourselves to be. This may not be the comfort to all that it is to me, the blessed relief. But I’ll take it.