Friday, February 22, 2008

The strange mayfly episode

Today, I saw a cat sitting right in the middle of the pavilion near my home. It looked so carefree and serene, full of content. I thought how come a cat, with so little possessions, can have a life so carefree and possibly happy, at least at that particular moment in time. I wonder how come, humans having so much, can actually have so little.

I knew my blog post tonight will be about this topic, so I suddenly thought of the Mayfly - an insect that lives for 1-2 days with absolutely no mouth to feed. Its sole purpose in life is to mate and then die off. Is such a life worth living - to live in order that the species will propagate and carry on? I wonder what do the Mayfly think of its life...is it full of purpose or is it meaningless as I thought it is? What could it be thinking of as it lies in the last few minutes of its life?

It's eerily coincidental that there is this insect that had been resting motionlessly in my bathroom. I thought it was dead because I really never see it moving for 1-2 days already. I told myself that it must have attained nirvana and must have died a happy death - possibly a painless one. C'mon, at least it's not eaten and smashed alive by humans. I left it alone.

It's eerie because when I did some research on Mayfly (to type this blog), I found that a mayfly looks like this:

It's characterised by 2 long hind legs, with an 'arched' body. So guess what? When I went back to the bathroom and looked closely at it, it's exactly the same! I went to nudge it a little and am surprised to see it inch a little away from my fingers. I guess it's still alive...though weak enough not to fly away.

Things around us work in strange and mysterious way. Perhaps it's time for me to look inward and ponder upon the meaning of life. Do we need so much to be happy?

Think about it.

4 comments :

Unknown said...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DBOYYlanm1k

SIMPLE GIFTS
(Yo-Yo Ma and Alison Krauss)

'Tis the gift to be simple,
'tis the gift to be free.
'Tis the gift to come down
      where we ought to be.
And when we find ourselves
in the place just right,
'Twill be in the valley
      of love and delight.

When true simplicity is gained,
To bow and to bend
      we shall not be ashamed.
To turn, turn
will be our delight,
'Till by turning, turning
      we come round right.

la papillion said...

HH,

Nice song indeed. Thks for the recommendation :P

(I noticed that the picture hanging along the staircase had been removed...what happened to it?)

Unknown said...

LP,

Glad you like it. Its one of the very few songs I sent to him.

*Painting most likely stolen.

I bought it in hospital auction; not a good painting to be kept inside. Be careful, too many new tenants opp. remember to close dooor.

some info for you:

http://www.wintergreenfund.com/downloads/news_20080121_columbia.pdf

Unknown said...

http://who.events.com.sg/

If you have not been to Fort Canning, may want to consider. Its really a beautiful park with trees of hundred years old and overlooking the city.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Canning