Little Black Worms…Little Green Men

                     Little Black Worms…Little Green Men

The portions of this from the human standpoint are factual.  I cannot verify the worms’ reactions.

Ever since I was a kid, I relished the idea of making contact with beings from other worlds.  I reveled in the stories of those who had seen “UFO’s.”  I stayed up late at night to listen to people who gave accounts of their contacts with Space Aliens.  Of course, I’ve never seen an alien craft.  By definition, I’ve seen lots of photos.  Most of them can be explained, (Once explained, they are no longer “Unidentified Flying Objects.”  They are identified.)  Swamp gas, airplanes, other natural phenomena, and just plain hoaxes.

As to those who claim to have been in contact with aliens, I’ve heard many of them speak. (Not the aliens…the abductees!)  Most are obvious phonies looking for a few moments of notoriety.  But are they all?

And there are many who claim to have seen Sasquatch, or his many equally elusive counterparts.  Maybe some are telling the truth.  I don’t know.  I DO know I’ve never seen one.  I also know that having a Sasquatch, or a Loch Ness Monster or remnants of crashed UFO’s can really be a boon to the local economy. After all, if it wasn’t for little green men or giant sea serpents, or hairy humanoids living in the mountains of Tibet, why would anyone go to a small desert town in the middle of New Mexico or a remote lake in Scotland, or climb a dangerous Himalayan Mountain?

So I have a healthy skepticism, especially about those who claim to have had dialogue with, and been beamed aboard, alien space craft.  Yet…there are a few that have a ring of truth about them. (But sincere and honest people often have delusional episodes which they believe.)  Maybe it’s just so rare that we come into contact with little green men, or gigantic lizards or intelligent Yeti types living in the snow. Even if we did have the experience, who among us would be willing to share it, and suffer the attendant ridicule and disbelief?

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Whenever we get a spell of wet weather, my house is invaded by one or more tiny black inchworms.  They are harmless little creatures to be sure.  But I must admit I don’t like sharing my home with non-domesticated animals.

So when, a while back, I spotted a single specimen making it’s way along my kitchen floor, my first thought was to evict it.  I gently picked “him” up in a piece of tissue (O.K..”him” is an arbitrary gender assignment…I don’t know how one tells the sex of an inchworm!) then conveyed him to the front door and deposited him in a flower bed.  At worst, he would provide a snack for a bird or squirrel.  But maybe he’d wander around until he met up with the friends ands family which comprised inchworm society.

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Upon Joe’s (I think male inchworms are all named ‘Joe.) arrival at the muddy plot, the inchworm president asked.  “Where have you been?  Were worried about you.”   

“I visited a huge structure in which resided immense giants.  You know, the kind we speak about in our myths and folklore. But now I know it’s real.  One of them touched me.”

“Joe, that’s just superstition.  No one has ever seen such things.  Have you been eating lotus leaves?”

“No, no.  Really it’s true.  This colossal beast actually picked me high up. I thought it was going to eat me, but it wrapped me in a blanket and put me outside of it’s home.”

“Joe, Joe, Joe!  You are delusional.  Things like that don’t happen.  It’s all fantasy.  The fact that this imaginary giant set you free is in itself absurd enough to refute your story.”

Other members of the group began to chime in.  “Such creatures have been talked about for generations.  Most don’t believe they exist.  The few worms who make up experiences like this have been totally discredited.  How do you account for the fact that no one else here has ever seen these gigantic structures, let alone the behemoths you claim live there?”

“We live on a huge planet,” Joe responded. “We worms move just a few feet a year.  Doesn’t it seem logical that very few inchworms would ever come into contact with such wondrous things?  I can describe the interior of these cavernous buildings;  The floors are varied from shiny stone to some kind of  multicolored indoor grass, and….”

“Enough! Enough of this nonsense Joe! You are inflaming our most nonsensical  and fanciful insecurities and superstitions…and you are frightening our children with your preposterous and discredited claims.  One more word of this, and I’ll have you committed!” 

Joe never spoke of this encounter again.  After a while, even he began to believe that perhaps it had all been in his mind…a figment of an overactive imagination.

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I wonder if there might be real Sasquatch sighters, or actual viewers of the Loch Ness Monster, or even those who have, in fact, been beamed up to flying saucers by alien beings for experiments.  Might they be reluctant to tell their stories for fear of societal rejection or public ridicule?  I wish, though, that I could have one of those extraterrestrial experiences…But if I did, I’m not sure I’d risk telling my story.  I wonder if anyone would believe me.  And I doubt, whether upon hearing this from another person, I’d believe it. 

The inchworm’s tiny world was too limited and it’s experience too rare to give credence to poor Joe. Might our human world be too limited our human experience too rare to recognize beings and civilizations other than those found in everyday life?  Are we missing something?  Most of those inchworms had never seen a human.  Their vision is limited to a few feet ahead and a couple of inches off the ground. What would the chances be that they would ever see, let alone  recognize a human or a man made structure? No wonder they almost put poor Joe in an inchworm loony bin.  Could we humans have limitations that prevent us from seeing what might be all around us?  Is it possible that a few of us have stumbled upon alien or earthly beings that the maority believes are delusions? Who would have the courage to talk about it?   What if one out of a thousand people who claim to have been taken by aliens is NOT lying? Of course, I don’t know. 

Neither does anyone except those few.

That’s all for now.  I’m off to Roswell.

Bob Meyerson, February, 2016

Bullfrog Epilogue

Bullfrog Epilogue

Someone suggested I should have left this alone.  The first parts of the story were self evident.  Maybe so, but I feel strongly that the original FROG story had human implications.  Perhaps explaining it is “Overkill.”  So be it.  I’ll never know if you decide NOT to read the following!

About twenty five years ago, the late folk singer and humorist, Lee Hays wrote a little ditty. “The two party system gives you a choice of which machine to vote with.  Or choose which brand of razor blade you’d rather cut your throat with.”  

Don’t worry.  It’s all in your imagination.

I grew up with many ‘truths,’ which, through the years, have proven to be anything but true.  I heard the usual racial and religious stereotypes, and I learned which cigarette brand was best for my health.  Who were the good guys and who were the bad guys.  As the years went on, scientific and medical advances altered some of those so called truths.  But there was some really good stuff in that time, some which neither maturity or technology could ever change.  At least I thought so.  In my civics class I was told that my country was based upon a total separation of religion from government.  And then, somewhere during my school years, I had to relearn the pledge of allegiance….’under god.’  No big deal.  What’s the harm?  And it got a little warmer in America. 

It was, to me, pretty much obvious as to what a ‘person’ was.  But then in a college business course I found out that ‘personhood’ had been bestowed upon corporations.  No problem.  But the temperature rose a little.  A few years passed.  I had never felt it necessary to consult my dictionary for a definition of speech.  But then I was told that ‘free speech’ included the spending of money.  Just a matter of semantics.  But the thermometer took a couple of jumps, and I still didn’t notice it.

The leaders of the country came to us and said, “This is a dangerous world. There are evil doers in it who wish us ill.  We have but one goal, and that is to keep you safe.  So follow us.  We can protect you.” And the population said of course they’d like to be safe, so they decided to follow their leaders.

And the leaders said, “ It is important that we maintain good order.  And so while you will always remain free, it is necessary that your government have access and jurisdiction over some of your actions….just a few.  And if you are a law abiding citizen, you have no cause to worry.” And it was expensive, but we were willing to pay for the private companies that could access our phones and our computers… to keep us safe. 

And to further protect us, it became necessary to go outside our country to make certain that the evil doers in those other places were unable to cause us harm.  And so that was done.  And sadly, while many good and decent people in those foreign lands would perish, it was absolutely necessary. Better over there than here. Collateral damage was part of keeping us safe.   And so was foregoing certain optional niceties, like care for our sick, even for those who fought those foreign wars for us. So was the environment, food security, and education. But our overseas adventures would keep us safe.  And in the name of security at home, we were willing.  After all, wartime was no time to waste money on frivolous endeavors. So we all dug in to pay for these adventures, or worse, to bequeath the debt to future generations. 

A few dissenters spoke out, but they were too few, and their voices were drowned out in a chorus of patriotic rhetoric. The temperature was rising.  At the same time, the leaders were gradually rewriting the dictionaries, and the constitution.  And it got a little hotter. And most of us felt it was a minor inconvenience which would have little effect upon our everyday lives. It made perfect sense to some. It was only the ‘hate America’ bunch who didn’t understand that.

 But a growing minority recognized that when the countries highest court coupled the concept that money equated to  “ free speech” with the personhood of Corporations” it would likely deprive us of an equal voice in our democracy. Though the temperature shot up sharply, many just shook their heads and went about their business.  When the leaders declared the necessity of limiting some of our privacy, well, ‘what’s the problem?   If you have nothing to hide, why worry?’  And by the way, this surveillance wasn’t cheap.  So when huge portions of our tax money went to nurture this technology, well…that’s the price of ….FREEDOM??? 

It’s getting hot! And since only a few seemed to care, there were some other changes to the language I grew up with. “ Clean Air” meant allowing corporations to foul the air. “ Patriot Act” equated patriotism with surrendering one’s rights. And that act was renewed with little or no dissent by either party in congress.  Profiles in cowardice?   “ Freedom” meant obedience. “ Free Trade meant“‘ ‘let’s not pay American workers if slave labor is cheaper.” Am I the only one who does NOT GET all this?

What’s happening?

I’m wondering if we Americans aren’t being conditioned in the same way as those hapless frogs.  Things are happening around our nation, and it seems few are paying attention.

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The following is from the American Heritage Dictionary: Fascism: 

“A system of government that exercises a dictatorship of the extreme right, typically through the merging of state and business leadership, together with a belligerent nationalism.”   Are we there yet?

             

Last act.  Will someone please take care of this?

By now you all know where I’m going with this. 

I’m wondering about those unknowing frogs who were boiled to death gradually.  Could we be courting a similar fate?

But just as there were dissident frog voices, there are those in our society who need to be heard.  The opportunity to support such people and organizations exists.  It is easy to simply give up….not do anything.  A few years ago, Folksinger and Activist Pete Seeger was being interviewed on public radio.  He had spent most of the interview talking about the rapidly deteriorating environment, overpopulation and greed had gone beyond the point of no return.  The interviewer said, “Pete, you’ve been decrying the state of civilization for twenty minutes, expressing a sort of hopelessness about the future….yet your music is always uplifting and hopeful.  What is the source of this seeming optimism?”  Pete paused, then, “Because MAYBE I’m wrong.”

There are among us those who refuse to be boiled to death.  Maybe as individuals we feel helpless, but I don’t believe we as citizens have the option of helplessness. It is not in American DNA to do so. We need to stand up to this corporate/ religious complex which seeks to redefine our constitution.  We finally refused to follow the laws and traditions of slavery. We ultimately repealed laws prohibiting  women’s suffrage. And in the dark days of Hitler’s Europe, even before we were in that war, there were Americans who risked their lives to give signs of hope and help to those attempting to flee Nazi oppression.  And in the 1960’s many from all over this nation joined in marches and civil rights demonstrations throughout the country. I believe that in keeping with that tradition of freedom, we have a moral responsibility to let our views be known.  And when the rights of citizens, regardless of political persuasion, race, religion or sexual orientation face discrimination, we must challenge the concept of  “granting” rights. We are BORN with rights. DEPRIVING people of their rights is unnatural. But though we have some powerful voices.  We must ally ourselves with others who believe in the causes in which we believe…even if some of them are people with whom we have little else in common. This is URGENT! Would our frog story have had a different outcome if the frogs had temporarily allied with the alligators against a common threat? Our heritage of democracy is imperiled. Find out with what and with whom you agree and ally with them.  Argue about your differences later.  We don’t have the luxury of putting differences ahead of agreement.  This is in the true tradition of our American heritage.

Perhaps those NON dissenting frogs lacked the intellect to recognize what was happening to them, but we are not frogs.  We are people who live and breathe and work and play and die.  But often we make the same mistake as did those hapless frogs…we trust untrustworthy people and institutions. We ignore obvious signs.  The frogs waited too long.  A few were boiled to death, but ultimately they ALL perished through failure to recognize what was happening to them.  Civilization as they knew it was over. Will we wait till the water boils or the swamp is poisoned?   Many of us feel hopeless…that it’s too late.  That it’s no longer our fight. And that as individuals, change will never personally effect us.  And that may be true. So why worry or care?

I offer this: How will history remember us? Who will thank us? Maybe the tadpoles will thank us.

Are You Smarter than a Bullfrog?

I’ve had so many ideas as just what this piece is about.  Everyone seems to agree it is allegory, but about what?  The reader will decide for themselves.  In a few weeks I will post an explanation of what I meant…but that’s not to dissuade you from thinking otherwise.  It is what you make of it.

I’m told that placing a frog into a pot of cold water, and gradually turning up the heat causes the frog to be unaware of what’s happening to it.  Eventually, the water boils and the frog dies….never knowing it was being slowly killed.  Had that frog been suddenly tossed into boiling water, it surely would have made an attempt to escape the pot. Gradually conditioning the frog made it much easier to do him in.

PART 1  A safe place

So the alpha ruler of the forest came upon the society of frogs at waters edge.  “Frogs, he said.” It isn’t safe here in the swamp.  There are snakes and alligators. They’re dangerous to frogs. Come with my friends to a place where you’ll be safe. We can take care of you.  But we’ll have to leave the tadpoles behind….they need the swamp waters for now.  They’ll join us as they grow into frogs.”  So the frogs decided that indeed they would like to be safe, and they went with the leader. The leaders declared that while frogs should be free, the preservation of order must be maintained, certain restrictions needed to be imposed.  While the leader assured them he would never become a dictator, in order to maintain a secure and civilized society, it would be illegal for frogs to take any overt action that might jeapordize order.

A few of the frogs were uncomfortable, but most understood that it was all being done to keep them safe.

The ruler of the forest called the frogs together.  “The alligators and snakes in the swamp pose an imminent threat to us.  So I’ve decided we need to poison the swamp.  There’s a company that helped me achieve my leadership position, and they coincidentally make just the kind of poison we need.  And I’ve been assured that the poison is selective, and won’t harm the tadpoles,” said the leader.  And most of the frogs nodded.

A few of the frogs expressed concern that this was not a good thing, but the majority said, “ It must be done.  It will keep us safe.”

A small number of dissenters kept speaking out.  So the leader decided that he must put an end to dissent.  “To show how democratic a leader I am, I will take those who oppose my ideas and reeducate them. Having moved from the swamp to the forest, there is not as much water.  But I am preparing a nice refreshing spa for you, even though you have questioned my decision.  I welcome dissent.”  Well this show of democracy impressed even the naysayers, and they gleefully stepped into the cool clean water in the spa.  “ A supporter of mine,” said the leader, “ has invented a device which will keep the temperature of the water at a comfortable level.  You will be first to benefit from this scientific advance.”  Even those in the spa wondered if they had misjudged the leader.  And those who simply watched felt gratitude towards his generosity.  And the device was turned on.  At the same time, in the swamp, the poison was being distributed.  And most frogs felt safe.

A few days later the frogs assembled again.  Those in the spa seemed in a daze. The soothing effects of the now warm water were manifesting themselves.  But other frogs were beginning to worry.  Alligators and snakes, fleeing from the poisoned swamp, had been spotted in the forest, far from the swamp.  “ It’s only a matter of time,” said one of the frogs, “that one of those snakes or alligators is going to eat a frog.”  The leader looked troubled.  “ I think what we need to do to prevent such a catastrophe is to build a wall at the edge of the swamp.  I know a company that can do this.  They are among those who made me the leader.  It will be expensive, and we will all have to pay for it.  But it will keep us safe.  Regrettably there might be some shortages for other things you frogs like.  Food, for instance.  We will have to scrimp a little in order to pay for the wall.”   But you know it’s for the overall good.

Some of the frogs were doubtful, but most understood that sacrifices were necessary in order to be protected. Most frogs felt the leader was taking them in the right direction, and were willing to sacrifice.  But a growing number was becoming skeptical.  Whenever they spoke out, though, the majority drowned them out.  And many more frogs were being treated to the spa.

So, as time went on, the wall was finally completed.  It had proven to be much more expensive than originally projected.  And since it could not go all around the swamp, a few snakes and alligators had been able to enter the forest around the wall.  There had been a few fatal incursions, but the leader assured them that without the wall, there would have been many more.

At the next meeting, it was announced that those in the spa had mysteriously passed away.  One of those in the audience questioned whether the warming device had caused the deaths.  “ No,” the leader said, “ those unfortunate frogs simply died a natural death.  And it was painless.  No, the device maker was not responsible.  And to prove it, I am passing a law prohibiting anyone from trying to hold the manufacturer responsible for this tragedy.”  Some of the frogs were not convinced.  “ Why is it that all who perished were those who questioned your leadership?”  A number of other frogs began to echo that thought.  “ Coincidence.  Surely there can be no suspicion that your leader would put frogs in harms way.”  The leader looked a little frightened.  The crowd dispersed. Many more were now grumbling and questioning the leader.

In a few more days, the forest had been overrun with alligators and snakes.  Frogs were being consumed in frightening numbers.  And at the next convening, one of the frogs called for a boycott of this forest society.  “ It is unnatural for frogs to live in the forest,” said the frog.  “The leader has not only failed to protect us, he has put us in great danger.  The only ones safe are he and his associates and those who made the spa device and the poison, and those who erected the swamp wall.  I say let’s abandon this folly and return to the swamp.  A great ovation burst forth.  The forest leader and his associates escaped off into the woods, and the frogs began a journey back to the swamp…around the wall, over the wall, and in cracks in the wall caused by inferior construction.  And they reached the edge of the swamp.  The water was a greenish yellow.  The remaining snakes and alligators were floating dead in the toxic soup.  So were the raccoons, fish, and all the other indigenous  wildlife. . There were no more lily pads.  No insects to eat.    And the next generation, the tadpoles, all gone. They had not been immune after all.  There was nothing.  The frogs had traded their natural lifestyle, along with all it’s risks, for something which though it promised security, ended their civilization.  And the snakes and alligators back in the forest feasted on the remains of those frogs that had perished in the spa.  And when they were done, they sought out new prey.  One of the last surviving frogs said: “ I wish we had listened when a few warned what was happening.”  But it was too late.