Thursday May 19, 2022

I don’t live alone anymore. For the past few days, I have shared my home with a wasp. A black-and-yellow wasp, that is, not a White-Anglo-Saxon-Protestant WASP. 

            I don’t know how this particular insect got into the house. I keep my doors closed. I have screens on all my windows. Nevertheless, the other day, a wasp came buzzing into my office. It circled around me a few times, settled on my screen, watched the cursor go by, circled me again, peered at my face, and flew off. 

            It did a similar routine that evening, when I was cooking supper.

            Almost as if it was looking for company.

            As I write this, we’ve spent most of a week together.

            It keeps busy about its own business most of the day. But it comes to greet me every morning when I have breakfast. Sometimes it buzzes by during the day.

            I wonder if it’s lonely. Wasps are, after all, social creatures, like bees and ants.

Anthropomorphizing

            I know, that’s anthropomorphizing. Attributing human values and emotions to something that is definitely not human. 

            We all tend to do this, especially with beloved pets. Not usually with a wasp.

            But isn’t it preferable to assume that another living being is sentient, rather than the other way around? Isn’t it better to act as if another creature can have emotions, than to assume that only humans can have thoughts and feelings?

            Anthropomorphizing is a little like prayer, in that sense. Most of my life, I’ve been skeptical about prayer. Especially  “gimme” prayers.: “Please God, gimme a red wagon for my birthday!”

            Adults tend to have more sophisticated “gimme” prayers: “Please God, fix climate change – so that I don’t have to. Abolish the coronavirus. End the war in Ukraine.”

            United Church minister Greta Vosper got into trouble a few years ago, for arguing that the United Church of Canada shouldn’t ask God to settle the Israel-Palestine conflict. It felt like treating God as a fairy godmother with a magic wand. 

            Granted, not all prayers are “gimme” prayers. I can also see prayer as a means of motivating ourselves to act. As we pray, we make a commitment to get involved, to make a difference. 

Focussed attention

            In her books, Lynne McTaggart contends, and gives examples, that small groups focussing on a common goal can actually influence events in the real world. 

            Humans generate energy, McTaggart argues. When people get together and intentionally direct that energy towards a common purpose, things happen. 

            I agree, yet I remain skeptical. Who, or what, resolves the difference when one group focuses its energy on clear skies and sunshine for a weekend wedding? And another group – farmers, perhaps –prays just as fervently for rain?

            I’m sure only of this. Whether or not I believe in the power of prayer, I’d rather have people praying FOR me, than AGAINST me. Sending good will rather than sending malice. 

            That’s why I think it’s worth treating my roommate wasp as a sentient being, even if it isn’t.

            In the beginning, I admit, I carried a flyswatter, just in case. But as the days pass, and my roommate shows no hostility towards me, I’ve decided to live and let live. 

            Hi there, buddy!

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Copyright © 2022 by Jim Taylor. Non-profit use in congregations and study groups, and links from other blogs, welcomed; all other rights reserved.

                  To comment on this column, write jimt@quixotic.ca

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YOUR TURN

“Dear Batman,”  wrote Randy Hall in response to last week’s column, “My wanna-be was Superman.  Dispensing with villains was secondary but noble.  My desire was flying.  One of my first memories was around age four when a towel would become my cape while underwear on the outside and cowboy boots completed my outfit.  Jumping three feet from the front stoop was my quick flight.

            “Now I only fly once or twice a year.  Birds are birds and planes are planes.  Life is more down to earth and there are plenty of injustices to battle with love, determination, and compassion.

            “I’ve also discovered that I have many more vulnerabilities than Kryptonite.”

Tom Watson chose to flatter me: “You're the hero Gotham deserves, Jim!”

Isabel Gibson: “I, too, learned the snappy-comeback strategy early and it never seemed to work as well as I thought it would.

            “On the other hand, I think we sometimes over-estimate our impact. After all, your colleagues brought out your old emails because they offered a chance to roast you -- that is, to laugh together at something they all knew about you, but not to laugh uncharitably or in secret. They wouldn't have read out emails that made *them* wince.

            “That said, I agree with your point. Listening works better than beaking off.”

Dave Winans had some alternate views about the effect of Batman: “Give credit to Batman for also being one of the influencers in your love for and adeptness in words.  So glad that the barbershop library was available to you!

            “In contrast, my early years barbershop experience was memorable but not nearly as beneficial.  Red, the family barber, shared a building with a curmudgeonly shoe repairman. I made it a point to slip into the barbershop without disturbing the repairman who, I was sure, nail me just as he did all of the shoes he fixed.  Red evidently picked up on my intimidation and started expounding on all the racket made pounding on those shoes next door.  In addition to the lather he was spreading on his customer's neck (remember when every haircut included a shave on the back of head and neck?) Red worked up quite a verbal lather complaining about his neighbor.  My ‘laying low’ strategy failed completely. Red shouted ‘Young Winans, go next door and tell that "*(%+" cobbler that Red said to start using rubber nails and quit making so much noise!’  A loud order from an elder allowed for no options. I slinked out of one door into the next, delivered the message, and quickly retraced my steps; to be engulfed in every occupants' loud laughter in appreciation of Red's prank!”

Cliff Boldt: “Some wise person once suggested: ‘anger is best served cold.’

            “I have on occasion kept quiet, kept my powder dry.  I still marvel at what some people have said about me for having kept my mouth closed when others were making statements that were proven wrong eventually. 

            “My prayer:  Dear Lord, keep one hand on my shoulder and the other over my mouth.”

Ted Spencer had his own coyote story (from two weeks ago): “No more than 25 years ago I first heard coyotes howling. The ‘bottom’ of Ontario was too far south, or too civilized, for coyotes; we spent a night with relatives closer to the ‘real world’, and there they were. 

            “Some years after that, here we are in serious coyote country and I, on my usual 11 or 12 p.m. walk, never fail to hear them, yipping and howling. Sometimes I hear the near-silent footfalls of a bunch of them going by, scant metres away. 

            “Wikipedia says that the chorus of yipping is a greeting to one of the pack who has been off somewhere, and has just returned. That may be true; if it isn't, it should be. What a thought: a sung welcome back into the group. And then the owls: also unseen, spread out around the acoustic space, offering their 5 or 6 or 7 syllable haiku to each other, and being answered. (Somehow, when the church choir gets between the notes it’s not quite as pleasing to the ear.)

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Psalm paraphrase

I don’t think I have ever sentout this paraphrase of Psalm 67 before: I can’t imagine why not. 

1          God is good to us, God treats us right; 
night and day, God smiles on us. 

2          God has chosen us, 
God has made us a mirror to show the world the nature of God's personality.

3          Let your people’s lives praise you, Lord; 
let all the people praise you. 

4          Every country on every continent can be grateful to you. 
Every people and every race of people can see how just you are.

5          Let the people praise you, Lord; 
let all the people praise you. 

6          The good earth feeds us fruit and vine; 
God trusted us to take care of it. 

7          Now every field and every forest lifts its hands toward heaven. 
Let the people praise you, Lord; 
let all the people praise you. 

You can find paraphrases of most of the psalms in the Revised Common Lectionary in my book Everyday Psalmsavailable from Wood Lake Publishing, info@woodlake.com.

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TECHNICAL STUFF

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PROMOTION STUFF

To use the links in this section, you’ll have to insert the necessary symbols. Some spam filters have blocked my posts because they’re suspicious of some of the web links.

                  Wayne Irwin's “Churchweb Canada,” an inexpensive service for any congregation wanting to develop a web presence, with free consultation. http://wwwDOTchurchwebcanadaDOTca He’s also relatively inexpensive!

                  I recommend Isabel Gibson’s thoughtful and well-written blog, wwwDOTtraditionaliconoclastDOTcom. She also has lots of beautiful photos. Especially of birds.

                  Tom Watson writes a weekly blog called “The View from Grandpa Tom’s Balcony” -- ruminations on various subjects, and feedback from Tom’s readers. Write him at tomwatsoATgmailDOTcom (NB that’s “watso” not “watson”)

ALVA WOOD’S ARCHIVE

                  I have acquired (don’t ask how) the complete archive of the late Alva Wood’s collection of satiric and sometimes wildly funny columns about a mythical village’s misadventures. I’ve put them on my website: http://quixotic.ca/Alva-Wood-Archive. You’re welcome to browse. No charge. (Although maybe if I charged a fee, more people would find the archive worth visiting.)