Preying After Midnight

Preying After Midnight
Originally uploaded by lorenzodom

i came across this macabre scene just after midnight, when i was taking out the garbage. the only reason i noticed the grisly occurrence was that the arrested lightning bug (firefly) was beaming its distress signal like mad. it was a sad scene.

or was it?

for wasn't i simply applying "human" emotion to something that is all-too natural? part of the evolutionary process, the fixed and permanent rule that calls for the “survival of the fittest”? or is darwin's theory nothing but an artificial human construct as well?

at the same time, i “thought” this i felt compassion, with the impulse to let the bug free, it's madly beating light screaming “help me! helllllp meeee!” just like the infamously eerie screech ending the original horror movie, the fly, which happens to be about man’s ill-fated attempt to manipulate and control the forces of nature.

alas, albeit the shrill of glowing green was prodding me to take action, my so-called intellect usurped this moment of sentiment, and i allowed the insects to just be, justifying my actions by thinking that i could not, should not, disturb the food chain.

besides, my sons and i had caught half a dozen fireflies the other night when we camped outside in the backyard and placed them in a mesh contraption left-over from the butterfly breeding kit we had. and this was simply for our amusement. ultimately, it was failed experiment, because they stopped flashing their love lights, being that there were no female flies to attract within the confines of their new “home.” (freedom is our home mister)

in a morose and sappy sort of way, i like to believe that they seemingly either died of loneliness the next day, well knowing that they likely drowned in the rain that relieved us, humans, of the sultry summer’s day.

all this only further justified my opinion that our "emotions" and intellectualization are both quite fickle and only applied artificially.

in other words, once again I’ve realized that the truth is – the truth is all-too relative.