The other night, prior to going to our annual Moonlight Big Band Concert at the park, Debby - my young, retired science teacher friend - was so excited about cicada damage! She was telling me how her trees, when the cicadas were there, were animated with movement! They were everywhere! And they were. And it was loud. Anyway, she showed me what they do and I came home and found examples in my own yard.
GEEK!
In the picture, the cicadas did the damage on the thin end of branches. They burrow into the stem and lay their eggs. This weakens the branch. They lay the eggs on the smaller ends of branches so that this will happen! THEN, the wind comes and eventually breaks off that small - maybe 10 inches - of branch to the ground. At some point, the eggs go into the ground and 17 years later - MORE CICADAS!
I have to admit, it IS pretty remarkable. The bigger stick on the left was just a broken one from my yard - I have lots - but i also have these splintered one from the cicadas. What a fantastic and delicate process! it's so much easier for human to procreate! Why is that? They take 17 years to live a few weeks and we take 9 months to live 70 years! And they have to count on the branch breaking, falling to the ground, getting into the ground to come to life! That would have never flown at my house growing up - if there's a branch on the ground, by God it will be picked up, put in the wheel barrel and carted away! That was dad's law! And yet the cicadas survive and come back, every 17 years.
It's a powerful process. Mother nature is a powerful thing.
I was listening to the Dennis Miller Show - have you every tried that? Hard to drive and comprehend, let me tell ya! Well, i was waiting for some carry out and was listening - because, seriously, you don't try to drive and actually listen to the cat - and he was talking to musician Ted Nugent. As you probably know, they are both Republicans. So, Dennis asked Ted about Global Warming and his take on it. My ears perked up - I'm fascinated with this debate - and he said something that really hit me. He said that when Mount St. Helen erupted it put off more pollution, crap and heat than humans could ever do. HUH?? Really!? He might have said, "could ever do in 10 years" or whatever, but still. I had no idea that this volcanic eruption that didn't produce a lava flow but clouds of smoke and ash, put off more than us horrible horrible humans did. And then he said, basically, God and Mother Nature are far too powerful for us to completely change the destiny and outcome of this planet. Who the heck do we think we are!? I'm paraphrasing there...but that was the idea. He wasn't saying this global warning thing is a bunch of crap, he's saying that it's not as scary as some would have you believe.
I must say, after this cicada experience, i'm leaning toward that way of thinking. We are very very small.
All are but parts of one stupendous whole, Whose body Nature is, and God the soul. - Alexander Pope
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