Bugs.

When I was a kid we had this tape of music that included a song that went like this:

I hate bugs, good for nothin' but to feed the frogs.

I hate bugs, worst thing ever made by God.

There was more, but I forget the rest (and am pretty impressed that I remembered as much as I just did....)

I identified with that song; so much so that I recall my father giving me a talking-to about how bugs were God's creation, and that maybe this song was a bit disrespectful of His handiwork.  

He didn't really change my mind.

Since then, however, I have acquired an entomologist friend.
Every time I am near her and we are near the outdoors, she finds these ridiculously crazy amazing bugs--

the kind I didn't even know existed.  And though I do not gush over them (I am not a gusher) and though I do not ask to hold them (I am not a bug holder), I have been known to raise an eyebrow and say--

"Interesting".  

See, I kind of thought she was making up those bugs.  Like, she had some sort of kit that she whipped together behind her back while no one was looking.  I've been outside all of my life and never found the creatures she has found.  It must be a conspiracy.

But then--

I embarked on a summer of sitting outside for hours on end, studying like it's my job.
(Oh, right--it is.)

And, for whatever reason, the entire unusual-bug population of State College has decided to study with me.
On me, most of the time.
(They really have no respect for personal space, these bugs...)

For instance:

Look closely at my left leg.  (Very closely...)
See those two small spots of darkness?

(You might need a magnifying glass....)

One is a freckle, and one is a very bizarre little furry green bug.

(I don't know which one is which, however,
so you're on your own to figure it out...)


(And, by the way, small bugs are incredibly difficult to photograph.  Don't judge me until you've tried it for yourself.  And--since we're discussing your inclination to judge--you'd have a camera at the ready too if you'd done nothing but sit in a chair and read for the last 84 hours.  I'm just saying.)

Anyway, back to the bugs. One day I caught a glimpse of what appeared to be a small piece of straw lying across the top of the grass.  I sat there watching it move itself across the blades of green for a good minute and a half before I realized--that piece of straw is moving itself across the blades of green! It was waving it's headless head in navigation of the next best spot to--well--lay it's headless head!  It was weird.

Then there's this other little guy that likes to visit routinely (except for the day I had my camera at the ready, of course...) with wings that look like lobster claws.
Except that they're black with white zig-zag stripes, kind of like the shirt off Charlie Brown's back.
 (Yes folks, I am thinking of Charlie Brown when I'm supposed to be thinking about the state of Music Education in America.
It's a problem.)

And then there's the rest of them, in all their varied wonder, which I have asked this one blurry bug to stand in for.

(Do you see him? It's a bit like "Where's Waldo", but for bugs...)








So, though I don't feel all that much more knowledgeable about my own field of study (and while it is entirely possible that I am losing my grip on reality), I can say with certainty what I already knew but is worth repeating:

There is a whole world out there that I know nothing about.
Interesting.