Mike Tyson and dinosaurs: July 14, 1997 issue of New Thinking

July 14, 1997 New Thinking:
Mike Tyson and dinosaurs

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July 14, 1997

Mike Tyson and dinosaurs

By Gerry McGovern

Sometimes I wonder how far we have come.

My children love dinosaurs. I’m fascinated by them. Fionn, my youngest son, who’s six today (Monday), is always looking through dinosaur books and asking how big he’d be or how big I’d be to them.

Last week he found a picture of a Lesothosaurus and he was thrilled. The Lesothosaurus, you see, is the smallest dinosaur ever found, being no bigger than a domestic cat. Now Fionn thought that was great because here at last was a dinosaur he could look down on.

But, of course, the king of the dinosaurs in Tyrannosaurus rex, that big-jawed, sharp-toothed, fast-moving, meat-eating predator. And Fionn loves this brute in a scary sort of way. He’s sooo fast. He’s sooo mean. He’s big like our Arnie, without the sense of humor or any trace of irony.

One thing that fascinates me about dinosaurs is their brain to brawn ratio. You get these huge hulks with brains the size of an egg. They were essentially eating machines and all else that goes with basic living. And I find a strange attraction in that, a strange primal pull. They didn’t think about right or wrong. They just lived in a very uncomplicated, basic way.

In a complex, uncertain, demanding world, such simple living has a certain pull. It touches a part of me that is not that far removed from primal, basic ways.

When a punch hits a head with awesome power, is part of the brain bitten? How must the brain slush against the skull, like a wave hitting a wall. How must the nerve endings be stretched and frayed. How worse is such a punch than teeth sinking into an ear?

I am not against boxing. I enjoy a good fight like any other man. I was appalled at what Mike Tyson did. Days later I was a little appalled at being so appalled. Mike Tyson was bred to fight and maul. Mike Tyson is from the meanest streets. Mike Tyson has problems. A part of Mike Tyson is still a child. A part of Mike Tyson is totally alone, disturbed and alienated from everything. We who watch the fight have little right to hurl indignation.

Muhammad Ali is a sick man now and who’s to say that he got one too many punches in the head. Who’s to say that his brain slushed against that wall one too many times? But Ali was sheer beauty. A poet, a thinker, an athlete so fine. Who floated like a butterfly, stung like a bee and whose raps were honey. Ali was so fine. A boxer by trade. A black man. A free spirit who liberated so many from the humdrum and showed us something electric, some pure.

How far have we come? Here I am. Digital age man. On the Internet. Out in cyberspace. Thinking about things. Fascinated by the future. Fascinated by dinosaurs. Wexford and Kilkenny play in Croke Park today. Primal energy. Beautiful skill. Awesome. I wish I was there.

Gerry McGovern

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