Cicada Seasons and Human Reasons
Hey, it’s been a while! I highly recommend the audio above rather than the text below (or both, you’re your own person). Enjoy!
We sprang into summer activities before the season officially began, and it’s been a whirlwind of a season. I’ve been filling my time with analog fun: activities with family, writing (on paper), reading (on paper), and playing (in real life). These warmer months find me outside more than in, tending to my garden of plants and children.
This season is especially cacophonous, with the added background music of overlapping cicada broods. I live in the Midwestern US, and my spot on the map is experiencing a unique phenomenon right now. Like, this minute. If you don’t know, cicadas are an insect (a “superfamily” of insects! What a fun concept!) that emerge from underground in broods. I found an article with details here, but stopped reading when it said “there won’t be areas of significant overlap”. I’m not sure what it’s like everywhere, but I’d call Lombard, IL a place of at least some “overlap” — Hey, scientists and etymologists entomologists, please correct me if I’m wrong! https://cicadas.uconn.edu/
What we’ve had for the last several weeks is an ever-unfolding emergence of cicadas. They are bigger and more boisterous than most common summer insects. Folks are… having a variety of responses to their presence. Some, as you can imagine, are annoyed by these absentminded flyers. They beguile their friends with tales of cicada swarms, the deafening sound of their incessant chirp, the bone-chilling crunch of their abandoned exoskeletons, the piercing red of their beady eyes, and the cadaverine scent of their bazillion carcasses.
Others, you might not know, are fascinated by these broods of terrestrial explorers. Imagine — your whole family (for generations) has lived in subterranean Earth — all you know is dark, quiet, intermittently disturbed life underground (not even realizing you are below ground, or that there is an aboveground. I mean… let that sink in a moment). And then, one day, as was foretold, one set of newbies (nymphs) gets sent Up.
What’s Up?
“Up? What’s Up?” asks a subterranean nymph. (Oh, not much, just sitting outside reading) ;)
“Up,” responds the elder, “is your destiny. You will go up, become an adult, and make a family. It’s your duty. You must go to the light and procreate.”
“Then what?” asks the naive little cicada baby, fearful of the unknown Up. “What happens next?”
“Well, here’s the tricky part… you’ll go bravely forth into the unknown, mate, and then die”.
“That… doesn’t sound great… Are they expecting us Up there?”
“Well… yes… they know you’re coming”.
“Are they ready with food and comfy beds?”
“… not likely,” the elder drifts off woefully. “Anyway, Up is your destiny. And it’s time! Now, go!”
And off they get.
(For a much more theatric reading of this post, and my unbundling of this experience from the perspective of humans, cicadas, and our planet, please give the audio a listen above. I spoke much more than I wrote, and unbundled some thoughts that are harder to unpack in typed sentences).
The cicada visit is at its peak. The ascension was several weeks ago, they’ve been flying around and procreating for a bit, and soon they will descend again. The reception has been varied and everyone’s having their own experience. I look at them with curiosity. I look at humans with curiosity.
I see our species, in its infancy, Human Nymphs — and hope that we grow up to make safer choices, to cultivate and value community, to take good care of each other and our planet and its inhabitants (from sky to land to sea to caves).
This is our duty. Our destiny.
To live, to serve, to protect, and to leave it better than we found it. Starting now.
What will the cicadas find when they re-emerge in 13 or 17 years? What could it be like? How would you like to see it? Now, off we get!
Take good care.
Love,
Jessie
PS: Here’s a song for the road. I first heard about the artist, Asgeir, in the book “A Heart That Works” by Rob Delaney. The album “In The Silence” and this song in Icelandic are beautiful without even understanding the words. Later, I listened to the lyrics (poetry) in English and the beauty grew. I’ve included both versions here, I recommend listening to both. Enjoy!
Icelandic:
English:
Beautiful