Build Date: Wed Aug 13 13:41:13 2025 UTC
I quit drinking, and then I lost my car, and my house, my girlfriend and my job and my self respect. Now I'm homeless, unemployed, riding public transpo, broke, unloved and suicidally depressed, but you know what? today I don't have to drink.
-- Splicer
Stop Buggin'
2003-07-29 10:59:45
Once upon a time I was in a Laundromat with nothing to read. The only literature on the public news rack was the Berkeley Psychic Reader. It featured an article about how bugs in western culture, with the exception of possibly butterflies and ladybugs, get an unfair evil rap, whereas bugs in eastern culture are revered as symbolic icons. The article suggested ways we can access the Grand Message of the Inner Bug God from each creepin’ critter that crawls into our sphere of reference.
The praying mantis symbolizes strength adaptability and ease of communication. Ants are industrious community oriented single-minded builders. Spiders are weavers and tricksters. Pay close attention to these Portents of Pestilence and you just might learn something. Are the ants marching one-by-one up your bed frame? Been lazy lately? Ignoring projects and your friends? Are there spiders and webs everywhere you look? Have you captured someone (maybe yourself) in a web of deception? A praying mantis above your doorframe may be telling you to either work out or brace yourself, maybe both.
So, I tried this one-day. I was sitting in the car with the window down and a fly flew in. It circled my head in an irritating yet provocative manner. Finally I asked if it had something to tell me. What is the Great Message of the Fly? As I focused, the fly landed and sat on the window frame. I contemplated the fly. What does a fly do? It flies around for the approximate 72 hours of its little fly life hunting for rotting warm substances in which to lay its eleventy-kerjillion little fly eggs. Offspring. Procreation. Survival of the Fittest. Its whole life’s purpose is to keep its little species going. And what a brilliant way to do it: In CRAP. Everything pretty much stays away from funky rotting crap. So flies can live on and on. Bless their little maggot hearts. Thus I learned the valuable and prophetic Lesson of the Fly: From Shit Comes Life.
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