Life holds many great mysteries. So let’s go find one. No you won’t need a passport, there’s no need to leave the country. Hang your car keys back on the hookie thingie, you won’t be going far enough to constitute the use of over-priced fossil fuels. Don’t bother checking your calendar, rescheduling your child’s grooming appointment or finding a sitter for the dog. This won’t take long and if you’re reading this then you’ve got a moment to spare…or you’re on the toilet…well the rest of us aren’t going to wait for the paperwork, so…
Some of life’s greatest mysteries reside in our own residence. One needs only look around to behold them. So let us stroll casually to the kitchen. If you don’t have a kitchen, any room with a window will do…though sincerest condolences are expressed for your kitchenlessness. Past the major or minor appliances (this applies if it’s a mini-fridge and a hotplate), across the linoleum to look at the kitchen window. Not out the window, “AT” the window, more specifically the small landscape that composes the windows sill. With any luck (and unless you clean out your sills on a daily basis), we’ll find what we’re looking for here. Ah ha! There it is. Lying on its back, one wing extended and all six little legs curled up; one of life’s greatest mysteries…a dead house fly.
Ooh, Aah (insert proper sound of awe here) and WTF? A dead house fly??? How is that one of “life’s greatest mysteries”? Well did you ever stop and consider what we called them before there were houses? Have you ever clocked a fly? They fly at speeds of no more than 5 to 7 m.p.h. Now you can feel extra slow when you miss with a swat. Did you know a fly’s adult life span (this is when it is an actual flying fly) only lasts 15 to 28 days? Though that last one is partial to our point and though fly stats are stimulating, the fly itself is not the “life’s great mystery” we are here to explore. Plus you can find all that crap on the internet anyway, so no mystery there.
No the fly is not the point, but how it achieved its state of dead and wound up on the window sill is. If you’ve ever watched a fly’s flight pattern, whilst trying to kill it to death with a swatter, then you’ll notice it’s not just flying aimlessly. There is a repetitive pattern to its flight pattern and a repetition to its landings. Thus if a fly flies by, just wait and it will surely fly by again; giving you time to plan your strike. If this is true, then how do they end up dead in the window sill?
Is it a scent they pick up, a call to freedom or the call of the wild? (That puts a weirdo image to the Jack London classic).They’re house flies, they live in houses! There’s plenty of food, water and a comfortable temperature; they have everything they need to survive and be happy. So why would they want to go outside? More importantly why do they beat their brains out trying to get through the screen or risk getting stuck between the screen and glass? They literally waste their lives away trying to make an escape from paradise; until they die from malnourishment or old age. If you’ve only got a maximum of 28 days to live, why would you waste a moment of it trying to achieve what early on is obviously proven to be an unattainable goal? This is where the mystery truly begins but doesn’t achieve clarity until we apply it to the human condition.
How many of us get so caught up in achieving our own personal or professional goals or in searching for the “next best thing” that we become unaware of the things already around us? Forgetting to appreciate, acknowledge and enjoy what we have? Not saying we should go backwards, but while moving forward shouldn’t we remain aware of what’s happening now? It’s within our human nature to press ahead and never give up, but maybe sometimes we should…or at least enjoy where we are till someone opens the screen.
I welcome almost all questions and comments via FOCUS, or email me at [email protected] or you can FRIEND me on Facebook under Saw’s Brood!
Hope to hear from ya, until then try and stay focused. See ya!
