On the Impermanence of Life

Some people wonder why the world needs mosquitoes. Or houseflies. They seem to be nothing but pests. A housefly does not have the cleanest dining habits, so it's little wonder that we don't like them to land on our bodies, or our food, or even our countertops. Who knows where that sucker has been? And mosquitoes just cause annoying welts that itch like crazy. If evolution could only produce a mosquito that could feed off of us without irritating our skin, they would have a better chance of survival. We might even see it as a charity to share a little of ourselves with a harmless fellow creature. But they are obviously not harmless. In addition to the awful itch, there is malaria as well as other diseases. Yet the mosquito has a niche in our food chain. Lizards, frogs, snakes, birds and even fish eat mosquitoes and their larvae. We can't very well wipe mosquitoes off the map without consequences. Same goes for flies. Every living thing is a part of the biosphere. If it turned out not to have a place, or if it couldn't compete with other species, it would go extinct. Flies and mosquitoes and other pests have been around a long time, so I think they have found a secure place in the food chain. But what good do they do us?

A mosquito lives anywhere from a week to a month, houseflies not much longer. Then they die. Not much of a life, really. Some insects live only days in their adult form. Then they're gone forever. What can you possibly accomplish in a few days? You can produce offspring, and that's about it. Humans live about 80 to 85 years these days, with notable exceptions. What can we possibly accomplish in 80 years?

A month equals 2,592,000 seconds. I don't think mosquitoes or flies are terribly smart in human terms. So no one is expecting them to accomplish anything in that time. But if each second is counted, that leaves an awful lot of possibilities. As soon as they are able to, they feed. Only the female mosquitoes need blood in order to lay fertile eggs. Male mosquitoes feed on plant juices. As soon as they are mature, they mate. The female lays her eggs and then there are a few million seconds to spend flying around exploring and feeding some more.

I think the reason flies (the most aptly named thing since the orange) seem to waste so much time flying in little zigzags is because they have short memories. Outdoors they might actually go somewhere, maybe miles away. But they are drawn into a house, or are born there, and can't figure out how to get out. If you present a fly with an open window on a nice sunny day, it's not difficult to guide them with an open towel or similar plane-like object, to go outside. It takes a little patience, but it's actually very easy.  It's where they want to be. They are part of nature. They don't belong in houses. They just get stuck there. And once inside, they fly in one direction until they notice that there's a wall there, then they fly in another direction, similarly sensing a wall in front of them and changing course once again. If they could just remember that there are walls in every direction they might give up. I wonder if they enjoy flying? What a gift to give a simple little creature! The power to fly. I know that if I could fly, I certainly would never tire of it. Maybe flies are a lesson in elan. Maybe they fly out of sheer joy! Maybe they have fed and mated and now are spending their lives defying gravity, flying and walking upside down on walls and ceilings. What a life!

If you've ever seen a swarm of mosquitoes, or been in one, which I unfortunately was once in a Florida swamp, you'll know that they are social creatures. Mosquitoes of a feather flock together. What a party they must have! It's practically orgiastic! Eat, mate, and fly around with your friends. If they communicate, they must do it very rapidly because their encounters can be brief. They probably have a hive mind similar to bees. They might be very joyful creatures. And yet we see them as pests and as killers.

80 years equals over 42 million minutes. If it takes you a minute to make a decision, then you can make over 42 million decisions in your life. And some decisions take only seconds. It's easy to see why no two lives are alike. So many variables. It's the ultimate chess game, where every move opens up worlds of new possibilities. And yet, some lives are brief. Some people die within weeks of birth, some live only until their teens or twenties. Some babies don't live as long as flies or mosquitoes. We like to think of life as an endless continuum. We like to think that today is not our last day on Earth. Yet it might be. Just as a fly or mosquito's life may be cut short by a semi truck grill or a frog's long tongue, we can be subject to disease or accident or congenital condition that could kill us at any time. The odds are with us when we are young. Most young humans do not die young. So we like to think that we are like most people, that we will live to a ripe old age. But life is full of semis and frogs and we should not take life for granted. We spend so much of our lives not flying. Not creating, not enjoying life. Not producing anything. 42 million minutes seems like a long time until I realize I've already used over 25 million. And how many of those minutes where fully lived and how may wasted? Have I made 25 million good decisions? Not even close.

But I endeavor to make better and better ones. Sure we need time to shut down, to do nothing, to rest. Those minutes are important too. But life is so short. The bristlecone pine can live over 4000 years. That's over 50 human lifetimes. I'm not even going to calculate how many mosquitoes will come and go in it's lifetime. We think the Earth is about 4.6 billion years old. Our lives in that time frame are not even as significant as the mosquito that is born and then goes "splat!" on a car windshield an hour later.

So the brief life of a mosquito or of a fly is a lesson on the impermanence of life. They are here to teach us to live more fully, more consciously. to not waste our given number of minutes. Yes, they are still pests, but every creature is a part of our reality, a part of us, a part of our experience. I don't expect you to like them any more than you ever did before, but certainly don't hate them for their existence. Let them be your teachers. Every creature has a lesson.