Harry and the Bucket Full of Dinosaurs came up over on William Tychonievich's blog. This continued some interesting connections with 'Harry', 'Charlie Bucket', etc. which are names and characters that may have some ties with Thomas B. Marsh, as explored in some recent posts here.
This morning I was looking into some other things, and I became interested in one detail about the videos (I had never heard of them until WJT posted a video on his blog) vs. the books. Wikipedia claimed that there were 7 dinosaurs in the books, whereas in the TV show (which ran for two seasons, I guess) there were only 6.
Given some of my associations with the Seven Daughters of Asenath, and the fact that I believe at least one is now on this world as a Human (thus leaving 6 to continue doing whatever it is that they are doing), this was an interesting detail.
However, I didn't really find anything to support or contradict this, so I don't really have anything to report on that end, I did, though, find out something interesting relative to the original book that started this whole thing.
Before there was both a later book series and a TV show, there was the original book called "Sammy and the Dinosaurs". It was published in 1999, from what I can tell. Later, it would be republished in 2010 with the new name of "Harry and the Bucket Full of Dinosaurs". I believe the details of the original tale remain the same - so we just have a name change from Sammy to Harry.
The name Sammy, taken by itself, can mean "God has heard" (as a form of Samuel). However, Sammy is also a nickname or variant of the name Samson. The name Samson means "Sun or Sun Child", so that should be interesting to us. Samson is also the Being in the Bible known for his legendary strength - a strongman or Arnold Schwarzenegger of his day, if you will. Another interesting detail.
I found a video of a girl reading "Sammy and the Dinosaurs"out loud, so I was able to hear the story and understand the premise. No jumping into buckets and transporting to other worlds in this tale, but the story really resonated with me and I found myself tying it into what I have been writing here.
Here is the video if you want to listen:
"Names" have come up recently in my posts, specifically in my last post around New Names being given to those in the Celestial Kingdom (Aman), and that these are associated with a White-Shining Stone. I also believe, though did not explicitly state, that these Names might be ancient - they will perhaps be the Names that Beings were known by a long time ago, but have forgotten. Unique identities restored, or something like this, but also identities found within one larger Family Name.
In any case, Names are central to the story of Sammy and his Dinosaurs. He names each of his dinosaurs - and not just any name, but the accurate name for who and what they are. He knows them. If you listened to the story, you know that Sammy loses his dinosaurs. In order to recover them, he has to call them each by their name, and asking them to come back: "Come back my Scelidosaurus!".
That scene where he is standing there with his arms outreached, and his eyes close, and is calling each of his dinosaurs back to him got me, in some weird way. Particularly, the way he says "My". These dinosaurs are his, he knows their names, and as the book makes clear, he doesn't want to be with anything else other than his dinosaurs. They are his Jewels, using Book of Mormon language, and given that I just used that descriptor, you should see where I am going with this story.
The Dinosaurs are meant, at least in this case and to me at this moment, to represent the Family of Light - Jesus' family. He knows their names, they are his, and he is theirs (as the dinosaurs tell Sammy). They are lost - his lost sheep - but he will call them all back by their own names - their real names, I believe.
Jesus says to those at Bountiful that servants or Beings will be helping him in recovering these 'Dinosaurs' or jewels. The name "Sammy" is likely here in this title to indicate one of those Beings, which would be Faramir - the 'son' or 'sun' in this case, and this Family is his also, given both his relationship to Jesus (his son) as well as his relationship to that Family (as his children and descendants).
The name of the title of the book was changed later, however, to Harry. What is up with that? Well, I have suggested that a second Being - Thomas B. Marsh, the Camel-Lion - will also participate with Faramir in this effort. Both Faramir and Marsh, I think, will be working alongside many other Beings in this effort (Joseph Smith, Hyrum, Elijah-Tolkien, Miriel, etc.) who also have keys. These two, however, seem to have something to do with doors, gates, travel, and gathering, though I am not sure how that all comes together at the moment. I think everyone's roles will be understood more clearly when the time comes, so I am not too concerned at the moment about trying to nail down all of the particulars (especially since the over story premise and framework is still very much in exploration phase).
This will actually transition nicely into my notion of Marsh-as-Peter. If that guess is right (big "if" just as they all are), and there is any truth to the Bible story of Peter being told to feed Jesus' sheep (who are numbered and named), we shouldn't be surprised to see Thomas Harry Bucket Marsh involved here. That request to feed sheep was repeated to Marsh and those that will work with him in D&C 112. But, that will be a different post.
I want to conclude with one other name-game relating to "Dinosaurs", which is fun because it also takes us back to Xanadu (not literally yet, of course!).
The symbolism of the Dinosaur is interesting without even getting into the name yet, in that they are very old beings. Ancient. When one thinks of the first major life forms on this earth, you think of Dinosaurs. They are also thought to be all extinct - gone. In order to have a Dinosaur around again, there would need to be some kind of 'restoration' or resurrection.
But, getting into the name itself, lets turns to, what else, Elvish! We are going to get a little creative here, but because it fits so nicely with a segment of Xanadu's title song, I think it works great.
Lets break up Dinosaur like this phonetically in Elvish: Din-[o]-sora.
Now, we have seen "din" before just recently when we went through "Dinoco" (in the context of Lightning McQueen), and all sorts of possible flavors there.
Another meaning for that word, though, not explored earlier (but maybe should have been!) is the meaning "once upon a time, long ago, formerly". This is not only a great descriptor for Dinosaurs (as I just ran through), but also the Family of Light that I have been writing about.
This family is from a long, long time ago - a time before this world was every created, I think I have mentioned a few times. At least that is what I currently believe.
The next word "Sora" (which is phonetically equivalent to the 'saur' in how we say Dinosaur... if you tried the 'saur' spelling in Elvish, you would get something that sounded more like Sauron, like with an "ouch" vowel sound, I believe) means "million; (vaguely) a very great number". So, my sense is, although specifically it means 'million', it is more of a symbolic count or number to mean a very large number. But keep that “million” in mind.
Putting that together, we have the Elvish "Din-sora" mean "an ancient great number" or "a great number from long ago". I believe this is a direct reference to the Family of Light... and, I think Xanadu backs me up on this.
When I get around to my Xanadu post on names, I think I am going to do a double feature that includes a separate run-through of the title song alone (the song where everybody is roller skating around in Xanadu). It is fascinating in the context of this gathering back to Holy Places, Zion, this Family, all sorts of things.
There is a bridge between the verses and the chorus which consists of two lines, that go:
A million lights are dancing and there you are, a shooting star
An everlasting world and you're here with me, eternally
It is that reference to 'a million lights' dancing that sticks out to me in this context. These dancing Lights aren't just twinkling light bulbs or something, but rather actual Beings. Members of the ancient Family of Light from long ago - a very large number of them - dancing together again in Xanadu.
And that second line even appears to give as a clue that we are talking about families, in fact. There is the very Mormon teaching of eternal families, and here we have someone singing about an everlasting world where people are together forever.
I don't know - seems to fit together for me. And that is how we get from Sammy and his Dinosaurs to a radiant family dancing together again in Xanadu.
Here is the Xanadu song again. I know I've included it before in a previous post, but it deserves another spin. You'll get it again for that name post as well, as fair warning.
That's a good story.
ReplyDeleteI used to talk that exact same way as a child to pets and to wild animals with whom I was acquainted: You are my black dog. You are my brown dog. You are my mourning doves. You are my white-tailed doe. You are my orange cat. I made a special point of reminding Tom, the orange cat, what color he was, since his ability to discriminate colors was quite limited and his natural tendency, without the reminders, was to drift into thinking of himself as being the same color as the grass.
Actually, to be perfectly honest, I still talk to animals that way to this day, when no one else is around. And yes, I still make a particular point of keeping Q*Bert, my current orange cat, straight on what color he is.
Quick note:
ReplyDeleteI had forgotten to also call attention to the author's name: Ian Whybrow.
Ian is another form of the name John, while Whybrow means something like "John War Fortress".
Given the likening of Tirion (Xanadu) to a fort, and a place where people will go to be protected and kept safe from war, and that John plays a lead role in this gathering of the "Dinosaurs" to that place, I thought it might be relevant. At least I saw a story or connection in the author's name.