Monday, March 18, 2013

Does the death of one mosquito diminish us all?

c0 The great Buddha statue in Nha Trang, VietnamThere is some part of me - a small niggling part that I can't quite put my finger on - that keeps telling me there is some quality to all life that has a constant measure irrespective of the size of the container that holds it.

Like a calorie, or a degree, or an electron volt - a thing to be measured, a thing that never goes away but is just measured differently when it's extinguished.

And not the equivalence of mass and energy, though it may be that, but more than that.

It's said that a brown bat eats up to 1,000 mosquitoes in an hour (source > ).

How unfortunate to be born a mosquito.

And what a deafening eldritch cry that must go out every night as uncounted independent living things are absorbed by another.[1]

[2013-03-12]

c0

c0 Clarence talks to George after he pulls him out of the water. George is suddenly able to hear with an ear that's been deaf since a childhood accident. George says to Clarence, "Say something else in that ear." Clarence replies, "Sure. You can hear out of it."Say something else in that ear.

"If religion were only a response to pain, that alone would be enough to explain its existence."
--Clarence 0ddbody


[2013-03-13]

c0

[1]
The story is told of Gautama Buddha who wept at the destruction of a termite hill. I couldn't find a reference. it was part of his enlightenment, if I recall correctly.

Posted by Angel2ndClass at 3/18/2013 12:12:00 AM

4 comments:

  1. TomMarch 18, 2013 at 10:52 AM

    Nature documentaries often look at the lifecycles of species, delving into their struggles for survival. The thing that strikes me is that sometimes, the survival of two or more species is mutually exclusive. The gazelle is in constant danger of death from the stalking lions. The lions are in constant danger death by starvation (due to very fast gazelles!) We want the lion to be well fed and healthy, but we want the gazelle to live a long life grazing on the plains. How can we have both?

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  2. AnonymousMarch 18, 2013 at 11:22 AM

    Unfortunately, you can't have both. Something must die for another something to live. The capacity to infer injustice or unfairness seems only to reside with those of us at the top of the food chain.

    --c0

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  3. TomMarch 18, 2013 at 4:49 PM

    Perhaps fairness and justice are more spititual in essence than we generally assume. Maybe it's the fact that we are spiritual beings that makes such things 'visible' for us.

    ReplyDelete
  4. AnonymousMarch 19, 2013 at 8:24 AM

    That's certainly one way to look at it. Might also be that we've developed the ability do discuss concepts and relationships outside ourselves, something animals can't do (so far as we know ; there is a difference between a bee's ability to give directions to a good pollen supply and sitting down over a mug of honey and discussing the merits of the vintage from Farmer Brown's clover patch).

    --c0

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