We live in a woodsy part of Texas which means that the out-of-doors is warm, humid, grassy, with thick shaded forests where flora can decay and be consumed by insects and whatnot. This creates near legendary swarms of mosiquitoes in the summer, and provides a home to a great many arthropods that break down dead organic matter and help the cycle of life continue.
As such, it’s not entirely unusual for one of these creatures to permeate the illusion of the hermetically-sealed home and lo, there is a bug.
When encountering such a bug a human can ask, “Shall I dispatch this small, yet alive bit of matter, animated by forces unknown or shall I do something else with it like dress it like Carmen Miranda and play showtunes or, perhaps, return it to the great out-of doors.
Oftentimes when coming across a “roly-poly” I will take an extra moment, scoop it up in its defensive ball form and return it to the nearby garden. I wish it well on its way. I hear the great chimes of Lhasa toll for me and the name avalokitesvhara whispers on the wind. Lauren says “That’s very Buddhist of you”.
But last night as I wandered into bathroom I noticed an insufficiently cute Symphylian of some sort scurrying across the floor. In a moment I grabbed a copy of Vanity Fair and with the full fury of 18-th century Johnathan Edwards’ Puritan God, struck out at that interloper, tossing a brick through the delicate gossamer web that suspends the lives of all sinners and arthropods over a firey Hell.
Although I feel bad that as I turned him to a shade the last thing he saw was the forced, painfully-cool smirk of Shia LaBoeuf. The perfume girl ad on the back was much more pleasant.
human beings’ sense and appreciation of cuteness equating to goodness is just another element in the evolution sandbox
you wanna have a chance of surviving an encounter with a human? be edibly unpalatable but still have enough innate cuteness to generate a moment of pause before your insect life is snuffed out.
I’m also bothered by this issue. But I do take spiders and other non-cutes outside if I can do so easily.
But that’s another problem. I go out of my way A LOT to get critters outside, but if it is going to take more than a few seconds of my time — and there’s a good chance the bugger will get away from me — I just kill him.
It’s hard to feel righteous about taking many bugs outside when you know it’s so easy to convince you to snuff their lives out instead. But I do apologize to the bug, if that makes any difference…
To Bobcat: I think an important additional criteria is “doesn’t scare bejeesus out of SO”. To this end, I advise spiders to stay out.
To Daniel: In the words for V for Vendetta: It’s never too late to apologize
To All: It was funny because after she had read this we were both in my bathroom ( uh, physically, not “in the bathroom”, uh, together ) and she pointed out a mosquito in the sink. Regrettably those bastards really eat her up and it was an entirely effortless movement on my part to turn on the tap and send that interloper to a watery death.
Her statement: “I guess you’re no Buddhist after all.”.