I always feel so sorry for nature. Humans build houses all over the forest, dig holes into the ground, pump crap into the skies. It is a victim! It deserves rights and protection and advocacy!
And yet, yesterday, when I went running, a wasp stung me right through my shirt on my underarm. Twice! Nature, does, at least in the form of bees, stand up for itself.
Thus began a crappy day of attacks coming from, seemingly, everywhere. I was on the defensive. The bees wanted me gone. Hurt and gone. My colleagues wanted me taken down a notch. Even Erik wanted me to feel sorrier for him that he used someone else's toothbrush. I drove. I hit all lights red. My phone wouldn't download my mail. My water bottle leaked all over my bookbag (which is really a grocery bag of the reusable variety). It was on the one hand, nothing, and on the other hand, everything. I know there are days like that but I just hate it when they're mine. But who owns days, really? Nature? Humans?
The point, though, is that the bees do have a lesson. Sometimes, you have to stand up for your rights. Admittedly, I was just running through the forest, minding my own business and the wasp seemed to chase and follow and sting me, (twice!) but those wasps didn't know I wasn't there to stomp out their existence. I'm sure they've had wasp-friends who have suffered similar fates.
Erik once poked at a hole the drywall of our ceiling. Out flew twenty hornets. I ran into the laundry room and shut the door. Erik got stung twice. I was hiding. Erik was on the phone calling the pest control company who came out immediately (after they heard we had a dog. This company loves dogs and doesn't want them stung), climbed up on our roof, dug through the shingles and smoked those hornets to death.
My point is this. The bees standing up for his territory. So was Erik. Sometimes, I'm too quiet. Sometimes I don't say the thing that needs to be said. Sometimes, I just send Obama $8 instead of making phone calls. But, in this political season, I should probably stand up and say something. And not just to my friends on Facebook, who already agree with me. Attack bees!
4 comments:
I think Nature will stand up for herself. Eventually. Lose most of the battles, win the war. I just hope there's more left on the battlefield, in the end, than a couple of punch-drunk wasps.
I know. It will be a very pokey, painful world. My arm still hurts!
Wasps! Why can't they tell friend from foe? If only they weren't so sting-ish, humans would like them better. JUSTICE, is all I'm saying. I'm sorry you got stung in ways real and metaphoric. And you are standing up. Even your friends who agree with you need the courage that gives. xo
Oh, bees. I try to love them but I still get that irrational terror.
As for politics, I will be so glad when the election is over. I try so hard to stand up for my beliefs, but it still makes me squirm.
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