A Smart-Mouthed Beetle With Words of Wisdom
Sharing unsolicited advice from the insect world
The beetle landed splat on the computer screen! “Excuse me ma’am”, it said, “I did not land with a splat, I landed with grace and style. I landed with….what’s that word?….yes…finesse! I landed with finesse. I did not splat, splat into your presence, I sashayed myself into your world. This world you seem lost in, everyday busy typing away as if possessed.”
“Well,” excuse me I replied.” I beg your pardon for misrepresenting you.”
I looked at the little insect. In a funny way, it looked beautiful. It was black and gray and cream. I am not sure if cream was its true colour or that much of its blackness had simply worn away leaving the appearance of peeling paint on an old piece of board.
“I heard that. How dare you? Just look at my form! I have six long slim legs — the same kind of legs you fight to achieve in the gym. Look how they are gracefully attached to my well-proportioned body. My antennae are light and feathery, wispy, and still strong. I use them as feelers since I really have no eyes. My head is attached to my thorax using a mechanism so uniquely designed that no other insect family has a head-to-body connection like mine. I am unique, I am special, I am one of a kind. I do not go around trying to be like other insects. I know my place and my purpose. I understand my role in my kingdom. You humans are the only creatures who want to look like each other. Like soldiers going to war, marching to the same drum, the same beat, having the same thoughts and the same experiences. Silly humans!”
“Hey,” I murmured defensively, “for an insect so small, that can be crushed under my heel, you sure have a smart mouth.”
“I have seen you many weeks, many months and I know you would do no such thing. You will listen and understand. You feel the connectedness to everything. You understand being part of the All. That is why I can chirp freely. Go tell your friends to appreciate being themselves, revel in being unique — being one of a kind in this entire universe. Tell them to embrace their specialness. And spend each day marveling in the beauty of their form — short, tall, fat, thin. If a no-brain beetle like me have figured it out, then smart-arse humans like you should have known it all along.”
The beetle started walking in circles on the screen with each complete turn getting progressively wider as if it was warming up for take-off. I looked at it in fascination, having never looked at one so closely. Then it opened its pair of wings, they appeared off its back, so large and so wide that I wondered how they were folded into such a tiny space. The wings were a mix of shades of grey — translucent, gossamer-like. The colour went from fairly dark close to the body to transparent near the tip — a graduation of hue no painter could have copied.
It raised its abdomen and cheekily asked, “pretty ain’t I? Go tell your friends, and tell yourself too. Do not want to be like others, want to be like you.”
If you enjoyed my tales from the mouth of non-humans, then you will surely get the message in these:-
