Bees and Butterflies

HARD TO WRITE ABOUT
ANYTHING OTHER THAN
THE WORST DISASTER
EVER TO BEFALL THE
HUMAN AND NON HUMAN
FAMILY SINCE THE EXTINCTION
OF THE DINOSAURS – BUT I MUST!

The West Virginia coal miner’s life is tough by any standards. Yet, a miner’s best friend is a small little bird called a canary. Here is a beautiful little creature that unwillingly may sacrifice his/her life in order that a coal miner might have life another day. The phrase ‘the canary in the coal mine’ has now been adopted by our culture to reference something that indicates something else about to occur. It is a primitive early warning system, but it works. Now there are much more sophisticated sensors in mines and canaries are no longer sacrificed.

I do not know a lot about bugs, have never been particularly fond of the crawling kind, but do know a little about bees and butterflies and what I know is disturbing.

Perhaps the two most important living creatures in the whole of the earth they will signal trouble ahead before it happens. A canary tries to escape the gas fumes but can not because it is caged allowing the coal miner to free himself from the dangerous build up of gases in the mine. A bee comes back to home when all is well, but now with colony collapse disorder affecting bees worldwide the entire food production system is in jeopardy because the food we consume is often dependent upon the bee for pollination. In the agricultural heartland of California where 80% of all the almonds are grown there is a mounting level of anxiety because the 3 million bees required to keep the almond trees producing are harder and harder to come by.

Historically bees were symbols of diligence and eloquence. Their work ethic is unparalleled, their loyalty legendary, and the sounds they make communicate in the natural world across geographic boundaries. Besides the honey which is the nectar of the gods, they are essential in the balance of life.

The butterfly, for our ancestors, represented an unconscious attraction to the light as well as new birth, resurrection, and a fresh start. My encounter with the blue morpha butterfly of Costa Rica, on a path to the Rincon de la Viejo Volcano, represented for me a turning point in my life. The magnificent blue creature, as large as a bird, danced in the forest light in front of me after I had been threatened and surrounded by an angry troop of monkeys. Not one for superstitions, I recognized the butterfly came along to teach me.

Thus, the bee and the butterfly are rabbi’s, teachers from creation; elevated to a status of mentor so that we mortals may learn from their story.