Summer brings with it certain seasonal joys and tonight I saw my first lightning bug. Not my first ever mind you. Not a Somali and snow sort of ‘see’ but saw it nevertheless; a little yellow dot just across the street on the median near the very little new tree; (Very little - it’s new. New as it replaced the previous older tree crushed when our much older tree collapsed on it. It’s the only thing I have ever known or been associated with that has destroyed municipal property. But then my life isn’t all that interesting).

I remember quite fondly the summer rush of these tiny exotic creatures and how the night would light with them; although it seems I remember it as an August sort of experience. I hope this is not another global warming thing – early lightning bugs - and is more a cognitive aging issue among the species. I couldn’t live with another warming thing chipping away magical childhood moments.

I, we, all of us in the neighborhood would run and catch – release and more of the same; for hours. And then when older but still child-like just looking in wonder at the beauty. It’s a beauty born of nature - “Hey ladies here I am!” I once tried this in college by sticking a light bulb up my ass, winking at the cute ones, while trying to pay for their drinks. I can say for certain that one should really leave this sort of master design to god.  I am not saying it didn’t light up I am just saying . . .

But for the glow; the constant search for its purpose. The glow is not a conscious sort of thing it just is. It is the nature of the beast. It is in the design – the grand design. They’re not unlike us; a need to glow – a need to be ‘seen’ as alive at work; in our most meaningful relationships.

I remember hunting all night collecting in a grass filled jar with life holes punched atop; maybe thirty or forty tiny lights; awesome glow from their collective being. I cannot say for sure that they would have behaved any different knowing they were captive but I chose to believe that they would not have – because that is their nature – that is the way they were built.

I have known people in my life both at work and home that were fireflies. So do you. Groups of them stayed lit even when it may have been a little pre seasonal to do so; people who were of their nature simply because that is what it means to live. If you have a lightning bug at work or home and are forced (out of ignorance or force) to keep her in a jar then for chri’sakes at least put a little grass in there.

We glow because it is our destiny. It is the way we are built. Look at the glow and be amazed even 50 years after your first. It is something to behold and to remember. It is the spirit. It is the essence of life. Remember it with those at work and those at home. Everyone has a light to them.

I am wondering if they have lightning bugs in Iran.

I think they do.

Jim

http://www.linkedin.com/in/jimreece