Ancient conveniences: enlightenment.

A tyrannosaurus rex stood alone in the rain like a boat on the sea.

A memory from the future ran backwards through the centuries and she thought, "I am alone in the rain like a boat on the sea." Then: "What does that mean?"

Infused with curiosity and determination she ran through the grasslands asking the other tyrannosaurs, "What is a boat?"

No one was sure. "A new kind of tree? A beetle? Describe it. What does it do?"

"It goes on the sea."

"And?"

But that was all she knew.

"You're thinking of a wave," they said. "Waves go on the sea."

She went to the beach and stared at the waves.

"That's not it."

The dinosaurs pointed to other objects floating on the sea: a log, a leaf.

"No, no, oh, I felt it, I am it, it is me, I am it, the boat ..."

"It sounds to me as if you've answered your own question," said a tyrannosaur who had a reputation for wisdom. "The boat is you and you are the boat. Float on the sea and you will be fulfilled."

She got into the sea and paddled to and fro. "Yes! This is it! I am the boat!"

The others danced on the beach, chanting, "She is fulfilled, she is enlightened, she is a boat on the sea."

"Let me try," said her friend. He shut his eyes and concentrated on enlightenment until the future occurred to him. "I am ... a plane in the air."

"He is a plane in the air!"

"I am enlightened. See what I have for you ..."

They ate the trays of plastic-wrapped muffins and reconstituted powdered scrambled egg, remarking, "This really is delicious."