Discombobulated
Discombobulated, down-in-the-mouth, dour. Emotionally, today was one of those days when the heedless actions of neglectful people really knifed at my soul. Maybe it's just that it's the sixth day in a row with snow and clouds. Maybe it's just that I didn't get to say "Thank you" and knowingly take my leave of this year's dragonflies. Or maybe it's the steady rumors of war and other wrong-doing that insinuates dismay. No matter what, some kind of acrid smoke clouds and curtains my disposition.
I took a short walk in a thick snow, hoping for a cure. At the catchment pond at the corner of St Olaf, I stepped close to the thatch of cattails. As I did a Snipe suddenly flew up, circled twice, and left. I was sorry to have scared it off.
Dia de las Muertos seems an appropriate moment to reflect on endangered species and the current, human-caused mass extinction event. I know this is a human-centric holiday, but why not extend it to the animal and plant kingdoms, why not demote ourselves that small amount more?
If (despite all reason and good sense) there is an afterlife, I hope it's not a cattail-choked retention pond, or, worse, an endless corn field. A muerto entomologist stationed in a northern bog when Emerald dragonflies are flying or alongside a small stream with clubtails would be just fine. But a late summer meadow filled with Meadowhawks would be the best ofrenda; I could wait that out.
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Hear, hear. Pax vobiscum, sir.
Thanks, Dennis. You're too kind. I love the Latin!
I can definitely relate to your vision. I've never seen a northern bog but I have had thoughts with different habitats.
Sometimes I'll be standing in the middle of a creek surrounded by dancers and sunlight trickling through, no signs of human in sight...as cliché as it sounds it's like time stops. I can remember summers days spent looking for dragonflies that seem like lifetimes. Surely I know had my concentration fell elsewhere I could be looking at something else, but I'm glad I stumbled toward the majestic dragonflies.
I don't believe in an afterlife (unless that means my former components becoming part of other organisms' lives) but it is a nice thought to imagine some pristine habitats and just observing dragonflies and everything else.
Hope you get surprised and find some more visitor's before the year's end.
Many of my favorite days in the field are favorites because I was fortunate enough to spend them with my human sympaticos. All the heaven we need, and all the heaven we are ever likely to get is right here on earth...where there are dragonflies! Unfortunately the same has to be said for pain, injustice, and suffering. Each day is a concatenation of things good and bad, or, as the poet William Blake put it, a marriage of heaven and hell.
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