Thursday, October 4, 2007

The B-Files

Einstein said that when bees disappear man will follow. There has been much in the news lately that this very thing is happening: whole colonies of bees are dying off completely. You can imagine, then, my mixed feelings when, on Saturday, I found myself squatting in the kitchen, spraying the entire contents of a can of RAID on a single yellow jacket and yelling "Die, bee, die!"
It had been stuck in my hair. I was on the phone. When the bee buzzed, the cellphone sent a shockwave through my body, extreme and powerful. I, of course, had no idea there was a bee in my hair; I just thought the phone was badly misbehaving, and then it happened again, and I threw the phone across the room, jumped up and down, landing, finally, in the squatting position, spraying and screaming.

I think, though, that my biorhythms were knocked out of whack, so I'm wondering if there's any science on this. Doctors? Mother? Brother? Or am I losing it? First, it's the bees to go, then my mind, then duck by duck, the whole blasted world.

But say we do survive, independent of the bees, what will this guy do--how on earth will he spend his afternoons?

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Dear Nicole,

How interesting that you should write about the bees on October 4th, the feast day of St Francis of Assisi, the day known also as the Blessing of the Animals. Which raises a more Hegelian question--are bees animals? (Yes!) DO they have souls? (Yes, too!) The man at the farmer's market in Inwood who sold me a beeswax candle said that his bees have not cleared out or gotten sick. He said it's because he doesn't use any pesticides, or sprays--all organic, pure wild bees. The candle smells so good, I am resisting lighting it. Instead, I just sniff it.

Thanks for leading me to the Blue Picture.

How is the gelato (as in "Eat,"?)?
Love,

Mary

Anonymous said...

http://www.hcn.org/bees/?gclid=COnDn6u3_44CFSApgAod9m73wg