Insect Matters

observations from the space between spaces

For reasons I can't quite explain, I've been watching insects lately.

This week, I learned (without particularly wanting to) that spiders aren't even insects - they're arachnids. This feels like exactly the kind of technical detail that makes perfect sense while completely missing the magic of the thing.

Insects aren't picky about the perfect venue - so you don't need to go far to watch them.

On the balcony I'm currently in are a few meagre-looking pots with plants that look like they are reconsidering their life choices.

There's a black ant that's valiantly hauling the remnants of a dead dragonfly across the concrete floor to a smallish ant hole.

There is something weirdly beautiful about this ant - this tiny fellow probably weighs a few milli grams, but he's carrying out this act with a sense of cosmic conviction.

In his world, at this moment, this is everything.

*

Here are my brief, unscientific notes on insects.

My view is that they run the world. We're just not able to say it loud enough yet.

They timekeep

It's like insects are woven into time. They're physically, viscerally attuned to it.

A cricket knows exactly when to start its evening symphony. A monarch butterfly embarks on thousand-mile journeys using navigational systems we're still trying to understand.

And while we're all fumbling with our clocks twice a year, these tiny timekeepers flow with the real rhythms of the Earth, unbothered by our human attempts to slice time into neat segments.

Makes sense when you remember that they've been around on earth much longer than us.

Actually important roundtable. From here.

They understand collective good at a cellular level

Insects have mastered the art of being part of something bigger than themselves. Their existence is transcendent by design.  

Everything they do ripples outward.

Pollinating flowers, breaking down what's dead, feeding everything that moves - they're keeping the whole show running without making a big deal about it. Just millions of tiny beings doing exactly what needs to be done.

And it all adds up to something vast and vital.

They have no social media strategy

I like birds and flowers, but I can also acknowledge that these guys are straight-A show-offs.

Insects just work. They operate in the background, in the spaces between spaces.

A dung beetle will roll its ball of shit uphill with the same quiet dedication at midnight as at noon. Termites are building climate-controlled towers in the savanna that would humble most architects. Paper wasps construct suspended geometric palaces out of spit and wood pulp like it's no big deal.

These guys are the ultimate anti-influencers. They do shit that matters, and we barely even notice.

*

Thanks for reading my completely unsolicited notes on insects.

For now, I shall return to my e-investigation about whether Ramses Prashad was on Love Is Blind for the right reasons (he was not).

The insects, I am sure, have more important things to do.