Albert's Very Important Things
There are some gremlins who fill every room they enter. Typically with noise, mess, chaos, ASBO's or any combination thereof.
Albert is not one of those gremlins.
Albert is the kind of gremlin you might not notice straight away — quietly occupied, generally content, not especially interested in being the loudest thing in the space. He has his corner. He has his things. He is, by all accounts, perfectly fine with that arrangement.
I asked him, quietly, if he might like to share. Because this gremlin has an extensive knowledge about the things that matter most to him. Like most of the quiet ones.
He thought about it for a moment.
And then — perhaps because today is Dinosaur Day, and some days simply give you the courage to say yes — he said he would.
What Albert has, it turns out, is a collection. A Very Important Things collection.
And every single Very Important Thing in it happens to be a dinosaur, or dinosaur-adjacent.
He knows all of their names. The correct names. The Latin, the English. He will tell you, gently and at considerable length, why each one mattered then. Why it matters now. He will not notice if your eyes go slightly glassy. He will simply continue, because this is Important, and he has been waiting for someone to ask.
Today, we asked.
Today, we listened.
Happy Dinosaur Day.
We're very glad Albert said "yes".