We haven’t had much rain over the last three weeks so I have had to water my garden every other day or so. Last evening was one of those days. Armed with my watering wand and a can of Guinness stout I went to work after dinner.
The mosquitoes are bad right now. We had a very wet Spring so their reproduction has been rampant. They will lay eggs in anything with still water, from watering cans to bird baths. And the life cycle, in 90 degree weather, from egg, to larva, to pupa, to blood sucker is quick. You can swat and spray all you want but in the end the mosquitoes will always win.
I have spent my entire life outdoors, from camping, working, to living for a time out in the open. For whatever reason, I can deal with mosquitoes. I by no means like them but my impression is that they don’t like me as much as they like other people. One of those “other people” is my wife. So as I watered the garden last night a black mist swarmed around my legs. Maybe it was the Guinness eking out of my pores that kept them at bay. My wife decided to do a little planting herself and lasted a short five minutes in the wilds know as our manicured backyard. Later that night hers legs were covered in small welts while I remained relatively unscathed.
More than one person has asked the question why mosquitoes live among us. I am sure some think they are simply a sadistic joke God plays on us to keep us humble. The real answer is balance. Mosquitoes serve a purpose, a complex and important purpose. Fish, birds, bats, frogs, tadpoles, dragonflies, damselflies and spiders, to name a few, all feed on mosquitoes. If we eliminated them would these creatures survive? Who knows. I for one don’t want to find out. So, we may not understand their function, we may not appreciate their existence but they do have a purpose and without them our ecosystem would be out of balance.
As I watered the garden last night with 10,000 of my mosquito friends I thought about the evil that had occurred in Orlando over the weekend and wondered must we have evil in our world to balance the good? Is evil part of our ecosystem? Can good even exist without evil? These are questions to ponder. Certainly evil makes us more appreciative of the good in the world but is it worth the slaughter of 49 innocent people, honestly millions of innocent people each year? Is evil simply part of our human ecosystem? The balance against all that is good in the world?
“Whatever is done for love always occurs beyond good and evil.” – Friedrich Nietzsche
I do believe we need the Yin and Yang to keep balance, but I also believe there are different levels of evil. This level of evil (Orlando shooting, 9/11, Paris, etc), doesn’t belong to the evil we need to balance.
ps: “they do have a purpose and without them our ecosystem would be out of balance.” Sorry, I still don’t believe that 😉
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The analogy was written for you. Wondered if you would remember
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Of course I did…Sorry for not ‘letting it go’hihi
Thank you for thinking of me 🙂
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Kind of my emotions in “Red Flight”. This is my earlier post!
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🙂 hope you are well love.
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Yeah!! 😊 How are you?
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Good, hot, but good 🙂
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Hot??
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Yea, like temperature hot, weather hot. Not “I am hot”. I am old, fat and dumb 🙂
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Hehe!! 😋😋 no no you are an amazing writer! This is all because of us… Causing global warming!!
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Thank you!
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Your welcome.☺
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Bats love to eat mosquitoes and fish do too, but personally they’re not actually to my taste, I prefer a chip butty and a dollop of tomato ketchup.
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Had to google “chip butty”. I like my chips with a side of cheeseburger 🙂
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Ever had a crisp sarnie then?
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again google and no. I do make a slice bread, peanut butter, mayo, sliced banana sandwich with BBQ potato chips on it. Had one for lunch today!
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yum
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Here’s one someone prepared earlier: https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/51/7d/de/517ddecbb0523c917dc147812e8fb8a6.jpg
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Sigh. I have been hibernating, too hurt with the slaughter and too self centered as this tragedy seems so PERSONAL…….so I read this post with relief for a moment. And then the reference to Orlando appeared and…..for maybe the first time since I learned about it, I wasn’t in a puddle on the floor. Thank you for, once again, making my brain consider things outside of the emotion that is at times a rollercoaster. And, as an aside, I am more aligned with your wife in the mosquito area. I hate those suckers. Peace.
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I do not live in a LGBT friendly state Ms. Gina. All my wife and I can do is raise our children to love and accept everyone for who they are. I think we have done a pretty good job, and hopefully their children will head in that same direction. It may be baby steps Ms. Gina, but they are steps. Keep your head up and your heart open Ms. Gina, take care love.
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Well, that post took a turn I didn’t expect! I was going to pass on my sympathies to your wife — I share her fate with mosquitoes, and have some welts on my legs now to prove it — but it seems inconsequential compared to mass homicide.
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I thought this was a creative way to tie this together. Thank you for reading.
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Hope you don’t mind a little humor…Do like I do and use your wife as mosquito repellent, works for me when I use my husband! They like him so much they ignore me, that’s if I can get him outside.
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Oh, I have played that game too. Honestly, they just don’t care for whatever brand I am, my wife on the other hand must taste like filet mignon.
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Snicker, snicker…
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