Have you ever wondered what it might feel like to be a mosquito? Probably not, and if you have perhaps you should seek immediate psychiatric help. For the moment though, we’ll pretend its okay to consider becoming a small, annoying pest. The good news about a mosquito is that they belong to a very large family. Cousins, aunts, uncles, brothers and sisters are in abundance, although they come and go rather quickly. Your family name is Culcidae, and there are 3,500 different species in your family. We all know people who can’t go anywhere without meeting a friend (and it’s annoying); mosquitoes are like that.
As an adult mosquito your life span is about two weeks. As a male, you spend your short life in search of food (mostly nectar) and girls. Your pick up technique is pretty lame; you swarm with other guys in someone’s backyard and wait for a girl mosquito to introduce herself. If you are a girl mosquito, each morning and evening you carefully clean your six legs, comb out your pair of wings, and go in search of a nice juicy arm or leg to bite, and make a blood withdrawal . Then you go find that swarm of guys and, and with little discrimination, mate.
As a mosquito, you will spend your entire life as an annoying pest, who may joyfully give any one of a hundred terrible diseases to the unsuspecting recipient of your unwanted, blood sucking bite. Everyone hates you. Governments spend billions waging war against you. Many companies exist only to devise ways to poison you, your family, and friends. Just to rub salt into your sad wound of a life, you are basically ugly too. So, is there anything of value that we can learn from this 79 million year old wrecker of a backyard bar-b-que?
Yes, I believe so.
Every so often we have a mosquito kind of day. We are treated like an annoying pest by someone who is supposed to love us, friends swat us away rather than welcoming us in, we’re not invited to lunch, and it appears by the way people treat us that we are carrying a communicable disease. All of us have had that kind of day, or week. Often, there is not any reason for it happening, at least nothing we can identify – we are just not on anybody’s list today. All of the invitations were sent before thoughts turned to you or me. Feeling like you are not wanted hurts.
The good news is that 99% of the time, on a Mosquito Day perception is not reality. Although we feel as if we are not wanted or loved by the friends and family whose job it is to do so, the feeling is not real. They do want and love you; they just forgot to say so today. It was a mistake, and if they could do it over, your phone would be ringing right now.
So, the value of understanding the life of a mosquito is in remembering to phone your friend, send an email, return their call or drive to their home just to say hello. Remember to reach out to those who need your touch.
Today might be a Mosquito Day for someone that you love, and face it; no one wants to be a mosquito.
Thanks for reading.
Ill never think of mosqitos the same way again 🙂