“To have dragons one must have change; that is the first principle of dragon lore.” - Loren EiseleyTo be honest, my copy of Loren Eiseley's book, The Night Country, is currently in storage and it has been years since I read it. I can't remember, as hard as I've tried, the context of this quote. Based on the general theme of the book, I suspect Eiseley may have been referring to dragons of the mythological type.
But it got me to thinking. Dragonflies are one of the oldest surviving orders of insects, dating back somewhere around 300 million years, give or take 50 million years or so. In all those millions upon millions of years, they have undergone very little fundamental change. On the other hand, the Earth has undergone profound changes: in the movement of continents, in climate changes, in the appearance and extinction of countless species of all sorts of plants and animals.
So, here we are today, in South Texas along the banks of the San Antonio River. A dragonfly perches at the top of a tall plant high above the river:
This set of photos was taken on my walk along the San Antonio River on Wednesday, July 4. This dragonfly was perched at the top of the tallest plant, two or three feet above my head, in a newly created, beautifully designed formal garden at the northeast corner of Mission County Park. At the time of my walk, this was the end of the completed section of the Mission Reach of the San Antonio River Greenway just south of the VFW Blvd bridge.
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