Mosquito Memories
Slap, slap, slap
Sorry skeeters,
It’s you, or me!
Generally, I hate to kill things. But mosquitoes are an exception. I’ve already given my gallons of blood to them.
No more!! On them, I — a former pacifist — declare WAR!
Mosquitos fill an important niche in the environment but they can certainly drive you mad with their buzzing and biting!
While I hiked a wonderful nature trail at a rest area in the middle of the western part of Canada’s Yukon Territory, I read a good reminder on one of the trails signs. These words, as I remember them, accompanied a beautiful drawing of a sparrow, “Please, do not squish my lunch.”
Those words haunted me occasionally as I slapped at the buzzing mosquitos harassing me. Then I read the following verses (2:26–27) from the Quran:
God does not shy away from citing any kind of allegory, from the tiny mosquito and greater. As for those who believe, they know that it is the truth from their Lord. As for those who disbelieve, they say, “What did GOD mean by such an allegory?” He misleads many thereby, and guides many thereby. But He never misleads thereby except the wicked.
These verses taught me that mosquitos may act as an allegory in my life. “But an allegory for what?” I wondered. Thinking about this over a few hours I decided the allegory might teach that a small insect can bring great misery to very large and powerful animals, including humans.
Moose often are driven to a crazy frenzy by these tiny creatures. In that state they endanger even humans in their vehicles driving along what appears a safe and peaceful northern road. Suddenly, a frenzied bull Moose jumps out onto the road trying to escape his insect tormentors and both the Moose and the occupants of the vehicle suffer a painful result.
The Covid virus provides us a similar example. The virus takes up only 0.125 microns of space, yet by August 11, 2022, it killed over 6.4 million humans on our planet.
To me this indicates that though we humans see ourselves as very powerful and at the “top of the food chain”, so to speak, we actually have no more true power than the smallest of creatures, or viruses — which are even smaller than we can see without electron microscopes.
Ultimately, the only entity with any true power is God, the Merciful Creator of all that we know:
Reverence the One who provided you with all the things you know.
(Quran 26:132)
May that One grant you wisdom and a happy life
