There was a scorpion - dead - that fell out of my Guardian newspaper when I opened it, somersaulting through the air onto my chest as I lay relaxing on the couch. There was a large, delicate gray moth - dead - within the folds of my new, clean bed sheet after a coffee stain necessitated changing the old one. There was a deer fly - dead - jumbled headfirst and upside down in the private confines of my red Clinique toiletry bag. There was a cockroach - dead - on his back in the tiny alley between the bathroom shower and a turf-colored rug. And finally (but never really finally), there was a curled up species of centipede - dead - which fortunately I spotted lazily floating inside a half-used bottle of antibiotic syrup seconds before I passed it over to a mom at the clinic.
What I don't get is why they're already dead, and why, forensically, I can see no apparent cause of death. I read once about cockroaches living in South Africa's gold mines, grim and terrible spaces two and a half miles beneath us, scrambling around in dungeons pulsating at more than 100 degrees Fahrenheit. A hardy species, if there ever was one - so what is it about the 1/2 inch gap between my bathmat and shower that was so perilous to a cockroach he suddenly cashed in his chips and flipped tits up, just like that?
I don't understand. Was the tiny scorpion already terminally ill and simply chose my October Guardian as a pleasant place to pass into the next life? (And is it meaningful that he kicked the bucket in-between an article on the Bush administration's torture of detainees and one about the changing face of cricket in Sri Lanka? How could it not be?)
Are there unseen chemical hazards in my toiletry bag, fatal to flies, that are a clear warning I ought to quit bleaching my upper lip and accept the mustachioed heritage of my strong German female forebears? Is the centipede in the syrup mocking our Western overemphasis on the biomedical tradition without honoring indigenous knowledge?
What does it all mean? Is mankind on a fatal trajectory to ecological destruction "in the same way the Mayan collapse was accelerated by the competition of kings and a chronic emphasis on erecting monuments"? Is Plato's philosophy truly encapsulated by "disagreement, debate and provisional answers rather than unshakable dogma"? Why has Canada had little exposure to sub-prime loans? Are all those dead insects saying I'm fat??!?
I think I've been working on next year's budgets for much too long.
What you get when unpredictable electricity doesn't affect the phone lines.Mozambique is full of enigmas.
6 comments:
Ha. did the centipede crawl into your nose and wiggle his behind before it died? He's just another harmless victim. 9 inches or not. I'm just saying, I think you should put yourself in the centipede's shoes. (all 100 of them!)
I think you're starting to use part of the other 85% (or whatever) of the human brain that other humans don't use. you may become a research victim. I was thinking about blogging about Christmas and Jesus birth...but that just doesn't seem deep enough anymore. Shoot. :) (I'm actually super lazy these days, well no, it's hard to find the time when you actually have a job that you can't take the morning off and write a blog like I used to be able to do...)
I can't get over the photo. It's great.
-KZ
Now it's my turn to LOL.
I think the drought was beginning to get to you. I'm glad it's started raining since this post. :) Who's the candle-emailer?
Brooke, your killing me here. You have to stop doing this. My sides are splitting. I think this may be the cause of death for your little friends. Uncotrolled, killing laughter. I love the photo but I am still trying to figure out why.
Brooke you have to stop doing this. Your killing my. My sides are hurting. I think this might be the cause of death of your little friends. Uncontrolled, killing laughter. I love the picture but am still trying to figure out why.
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