MetaChat - It is much better to be the lightning bug,

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28 June 2005

It is much better to be the lightning bug, capricious and free, than the jar holder, chasing. But I chase you nonetheless. Did you know how you light up the night?

post by: iconomy at: 09:26 | 17 comments

Lightning bugs are one thing I miss from my days in Kansas. We don't have them here in Seattle.

There was a dirt path along a creek in Salina I used for a shortcut on the way home. Hearing the unison wheezing of the cicadas in the bushes, the sound of the diesel engine of an oil well in the distance and seeing lightning bugs in the shadows on a moonlit night was more magical than I realized at the time.

posted by y2karl 28 June | 10:39

I only know lightning bugs from Calvin & Hobbes strips.

posted by kenko 28 June | 10:57

Oh man, so many memories of catching lightning bugs in the summer. Catching ladybugs was fun too.

posted by sisterhavana 28 June | 11:01

Because, see, if the lightening bug gets caught in the jar, it DIES by morning!

posted by rainbaby 28 June | 11:08

What?

posted by papercake 28 June | 12:15

Man, y'all are talking about bugs?! You're missing the point! Where's your sense of romance? *sighs*

posted by Specklet 28 June | 12:35

I was talking about my sense of romance, Specklet. One of my senses of it, anyway.

posted by rainbaby 28 June | 13:04

The lightning bugs were gorgeous last night just after the thunderstorm - what is this romance of which you speak?

posted by mygothlaundry 28 June | 13:06

Lightning bugs are more romantic than the millionth iteration of poorly-written E2 reminiscences.

posted by kenko 28 June | 13:23

Not poorly written at all. I sighed too, Specklet.

posted by iconomy 28 June | 13:59

In the scheme of things, I think it's best of all to be the weird neighborhood kid who squishes the lightning bugs and then writes his name on his forehead with the phosphorescent stuff.

In the food-chain scheme of things, I mean.

posted by mudpuppie 28 June | 14:49

Lightning bug. self link. I think. I mean, I think it's a lightning bug, not I think it's a self link. I know it's a self link.

posted by mygothlaundry 28 June | 16:48

I'm not so sure it is, mygothlaundry. A lightning bug, I mean. Not really the right colors.

posted by mudpuppie 28 June | 17:18

Nah, that's not a lightning bug. It's a big mothy thingy.

posted by Specklet 28 June | 18:12

When we were kids, we used to chase after them through the darkness and smack them out of the air with whiffle ball bats. Upon making contact with one of the critters, it was strangely satisfying to trace the arc of its spent, glowing husk as it exploded off the bat and then silently plummeted to the dark grass below. Now, I just enjoy looking at them.

posted by gigawhat? 28 June | 18:53

That photo is beautiful, mygothlaundry.

posted by iconomy 28 June | 21:24

It's weird though, because I took it the other night just before a thunderstorm - I was chasing a lightning bug around in order to gain fame & fortune by being the first person to photograph a lighning bug - with a simple point & shoot! Ha! I didn't see a moth or anything else which is what leads me to believe that it is, in fact, a very strangely photo-ed lightning bug.

posted by mygothlaundry 29 June | 09:38

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