Nature Finds: Insect Life Autumn Jambore

Giant millipedes mating in the path.  Get a room, you guys!

A daddy-long-legs orygy?  Where are the mama-long-legs?

This little guy looks up to no good....

This past week I did a presentation on Sustainable Agriculture for my mom's college class.  Just like last time, it made me lose hope for humanity a little bit.

It's unnerving to speak in front of a lot of people, but especially if those people are asleep or staring at their phone/laptop screen.  You get the sense of not being listened to.  My mom assured me they were the most animated and interested that she had ever seen them during the lecture - so that means they usually show the interest/animation of a pet rock.

I also pissed off the Arcadian Watermelon Queen - who happened to be in the class - because I offended her with talking about how bad conventional agriculture is.  Yes, I'm sorry, it's ruining/poisoning the world.  But we can do it differently - and even grow more watermelons, and not have to apply toxic and expensive chemicals!  And the watermelons will be healthier for people and the world!  She didn't want to hear about it, and spent most of the lecture looking at her phone. 

It's funny how close-minded people are about what is so bad....and it's interesting that "conventional" agriculture is now what is "traditional," because it's all so new, and has been SO bad (and actually really, really decreased the productivity of the land).  Now it's something that's clung to, not out of good sense, or knowledge, but out of a dogmatic, stuck-in-the-mud attitude of tradition and doing what's "normal."  Maybe it's the neurological affects of pesticide exposure or something.  In any case, even though it sounds horrible, I can't help thinking - we just deserve this all, don't we?  The cancer, the birthdefects, the illnesses, death, the being robbed of our world - we're complicit in this...like pet rocks, going about our days, staring at our phones or our screens.  Duhhhh!  The Zombie Apocalypse is here!  We are the Zombies, and if you think clearly, they try to eat your brains and turn you into one of them....

But then I think of the woman I met at the last Florida Folk Festival, whose whole family had been sickened from pesticide exposure at Lake Apopka.  Her sister had died.  Her daughter was dying.  She was dying, and using her last energy to go around and TALK to people about this.  Maybe we will wake up from our beautiful dream-land of amusing TV shows, War-filled news reports, catty Facebook posts, and stupid movies, because somehow, we are personally affected (we will be, we already are).  And maybe we won't believe the doctors and experts who tell us this is all our fault because of our genetics, and just take this expensive medicine that actually kills you, or we can cut out whatever is bothering you (unless your problem is diagnosed as "all in your head" because they can't figure it out) perhaps we will look into it ourselves...and we will find that yes, we CAN solve this problem....or is it too late?