by Mary Saums
It's hard to believe it has been one year since the big flood in Nashville. The last couple of months tornadoes have ripped through Tennessee and all around us. And this week, yet another unnerving natural phenomenon ...
... The undead clawed out of their graves at midnight. They crept to the shelter of trees, slithered up trunks and waited while the town slept. In the still of morning, thousands of pairs of red eyes twitched awake when the first human left the safety of her house. They needed no signal. As one, they fell from branches and flew toward her, emitting their hellish alien screeches which made the old woman throw up her arms, scream and wish she had put on a Depends pad.
That's right, Brood XIX, our 13-year cicadas, are back and terrorizing Nashville this week. You walk down the street, minding your own business, when all of a sudden thwack, you're pummeled by flying insects. LOUD ones.
They don't hang in groups of three, as above. It's more like an army.
Some like to play paratrooper and fall from trees onto your head as you walk underneath.
While you bat them away, you're also crunching the ground troops crawling all over the place like a battalion about to take over the world...
Squish.
...or not. Eewww, it's THEM! and they've ruined my shoes.
Writers try to re-create real life in their stories. But an exact replication of real life is usually too boring for a book or movie plot. Adventures and conflicts have to be added into the characters' daily lives, even if they're only writing about bugs. The writer has to balance that fictional high drama, taking care not to add anything too over the top. Otherwise, as readers, we all feel like we're watching a bad '50s B-movie with unbelievable, poorly developed characters who are always doing stupid things.
One such character or incident, two at the max might work,
but anymore than that
stretches my suspension of disbelief
to the breaking point.
And without that suspension, the whole fictional world, so carefully built,
falls apart.
Even so, I must say I do like bigger-than-life villains since it's only fiction.
And, of course, their counterpart bigger-than-life fictional heroes.
Yeah, those are good escape reads which is why I like them. My real life is totally boring in comparison. As you now know, since the highlight is a swarm of flying prehistoric-looking arthropods.
Boring is good. Many people in this world aren't so lucky. My husband and I made it fine through the flood last year but a lot of folks are still struggling to recover.
I'm thankful my family and friends in Alabama weren't hurt during the tornadoes. And I'm thankful for the real heroes in this world, the ones there when we need help,
who get us through our worst times
when it looks like there's no hope
and those who give hope instead of doing a fly-by and going fishing.
That's something more suitable for fiction.
As annoying as it is to have a cicada drop into your shoe or get trapped inside your windshield and make such a racket that you check your torso for bullet holes, they do have a redeeming quality.
Late in the evening, when humans have settled down on their patios with nice cool drinks, and the moon and the stars have taken their places, the cicadas put on a concert. They're still loud but somehow the night mellows it all out. Like the difference between the sound of a single violin and a full orchestra.
Together we re-enact a scene performed for millenia, since humans could hear and cicadas could rub their little wings together. It's more than a comforting sound that rises and falls in the night. It vibrates way down into our genes. Our innermost parts recognize it as something primal, important. So we sit and listen. We let our minds go and relax.
The cicadas mate and die. Poor sods. They don't get to experience much of the beauty of the world. That bit of providence falls on us.
My condolences, Mary, on the cicadas. They are a plague, aren't they? Glad you pointed out that they will pass, while life,with all its heroes, goes on.
Posted by: Elaine Viets | May 16, 2011 at 02:41 PM
Oh, my comment from the other day didnt show up? Weird weird weird. I just came back to read this blog again-it's so wonderful! ANd saw my comment wasn't here. Well, rats. I think this is quite amazing...thanks, Mary!
Posted by: Hank Phillippi Ryan | May 18, 2011 at 04:52 AM
thats part of every journey, life may end up unexpectedly but at least it was made with a purpose, funny though I was intrigue with Bin Laden's photo ..no comment to elaborate except is this for real?..there are many issues hanging around about false information they provide well I guess its part of the story
Posted by: Greys Anatomy Episode Guide | May 18, 2011 at 09:57 PM
Great blog, Mary. Thanks for posting it.
Posted by: krisneri | May 19, 2011 at 07:05 AM
Greys - yes, that's the real cover of the New York Daily News on May 2nd. Not sure if they're presuming or if they sent reporters down to verify. ;)
Posted by: Mary | May 19, 2011 at 12:03 PM