This was a question posed to my second daughter - Alex - as she pondered on life’s most perplexing question while finishing preschool. I remember this question and answering whatever was most common or popular at that age: nurse, teacher, rock star, ballerina. Now the first two is more of an answer given by a future realist. The last two, definitely dreamers. Alex answered “animal searcher.” In another words, a naturalist; One versed in natural history, especially zoology or botany. I’m not sure if this is an answer from a dreamer or a realist. What I do know, is that she is absolutely adorable in her pretend “naturalist” outfit.
But since we are nowhere near Africa nor anywhere remotely resembling the Sahara desert. we drifted into suburbia’s answer to a naturalistic excursion at a local amusement park. Costing only $10 per person, I could not help wondering if that covered the cost of labor for the man following the elephant around with a wheelbarrow picking up its excrements.![]()
June 28, 2007 at 9:04 pm
I totally remember my first elephant ride at the San Diego Wild Animal Park — that’s when I fantasized about being a Sahara princess. Who’d have thought that nearly thirty years later I’d be a glamorously hot stay-at-home-mama?? hehehe.