I sat down to lunch, the new cafeteria has a decent view of mountains and suburbs hiding between the trees Besides, the cubicle corral is cold so I eat outside to absorb some heat. This particular day a yellow jacket came by. It buzzed around and could not decide if my person was more interesting than the (now empty) fruit cup. I find these (and other stinging) insects very unsettling. I have been stung every time I attempted to brush them off. I am not calm long enough in their presence to sit still until they leave of their own volition, especially when they get on my skin. It is bearable on clothes. One got under my shirt once and...let us say it did not end well for me. But that's besides the point.
I had enough, I am not intentionally cruel to critters. I could not handle the level of inquisitive activity carrying on about me. When it landed on my tray I set the empty fruit cup over it. HA! Big brain beats stinger! Yes, victory was mine. I returned to my meal and book. I noticed out of the corner of my eye the wasp going around inspecting every bit of its prison. It did this about 5 times all taking about two minutes. After it was satisfied the most amazingly sad thing happened: it went to the very centre of the cup and it literally curled up. It arranged each pair of legs in turn, put head to abdomen and died. It stopped moving. I watched it intently for at least a minute. It neither budged not fluttered. Nothing. It just curled up and died!
I did not mean to kill it, I felt so guilty. I had killed a creature that had not wronged me (yet). I picked up the cup and the wasp did not move. It was really dead. I mourned for it a moment, tipped the tray over so it fell to the ground and, well, the day had to go on. So it did.
It's all fragile see. The whole thing, even the scary ones, and the big ones also. Life is fragile. Yours and mine too.
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