Bugs

"Our ability to perceive quality in nature begins, as in art, with the pretty. It expands through successive stages of the beautiful to values as yet uncaptured by language."
-Aldo Leopold A Sand County Almanac

Yesterday I was walking to Reid Hall and I stopped in that little archway - the walkthrough between the Chapel and Reid - and I looked down to see the most interesting-looking caterpillar. It's furry body was tan with several sections of black hair. I was enthralled with the creature and spent the next 10 minutes observing its habits. It would lift its upper body to search for something to grab onto but I had it on my notebook so nothing else was available. After enjoying the torture of an unfamiliar situation I had inflicted on the caterpillar, I brought the insect to a safe haven next to the building. I placed it on the leaf of a tall plant and watched it crawl away. The animal was so - beautiful. One could say it was pretty, it was sort of cute and cuddly-looking, but pretty isn't really the word for it. Beautiful is the best way to describe it. Everything about it was beautiful - its appearance, its actions and habits, and its clear thought process as it scrambled for a place of safety to which to crawl.

Last night I was in my room and about to go to bed when, as I was placing my phone on my window ledge after setting my alarm for the morning, I lifted my water bottle and saw a large centipede lounging on the sill. As I went to suck it into my Dustbuster, it startled and skittered away. I was able to trap it in my buster and in its captivity, I studied it for a few minutes. It was rather long - one and a half to two inches - brown with many legs and two long twitchy antennae. It was a fast little thing and I had difficulty catching it but I did in the end and it is now dried up and curled in my machine. Sadly it had to die so I could feel comfortable in my bed, but once again I recognize the beauty of the animal. There was nothing pretty about the centipede, but it was certainly beautiful. It had spots of brown all over it and its feelers were in constant motion. I was taken aback by its speed as it escaped my Dustbuster. I am saddened that I had to kill it, but I never would have been able to last the night.