From sitting outside drinking coffee:
If any other bug or animal got as close to you as bees and stinging insects did, you'd just swat them away. You wouldn't even think about it. You'd be like 'get away. rude.' But because of that deeply ingrained threat of violence you just kinda freeze up and wait for them to leave. Maybe some people still swat at them. I've seen that. Seems silly to me though. What if they sting you?
There's something there about the threat of violence and closeness that I don't want to explore.
But I'll say this. The bee or yellow jacket or whatever doesn't want to sting you. I don't think. I think they're curious. I think they started from curiosity. And then that aggressive curiosity eventually necessitated a retaliatory threat.
And maybe there's something there too about curiosity and violence.
I don't know. I don't have the answers. I'm a guy trying to be on screens less and sitting in a chair. A guy who scrunched his face up when a yellow jacket gave him a once over.
And then, later, I thought "If you didn't know about wind you would think that trees can move like that on their own and that would be wild."
'Helloooooooooooooo thereeeeeeeeeeee. I'm a treeeeeeeeeeeeeee. Hiiiiiiiiiiiii'
3 comments:
Stinger avoidance is crazy. We have it so ingrained in our brains that like... a yellow jacket buzzing around you feels the same as if some stranger is brandishing a gun. Like we go into immediate avoidance mode and want nothing more than for this to just stop. 'Please go somewhere else far away from me, I don't want to confront you because I am worried I will be hurt'
But then the last time I was stung was at a resort in Mexico and I was in the pool kinda drunk and wading up to the bar to get more drunk when my hand started hurting, right in the lower outer edge of it, like the bottom of the karate chop zone. I thought that was strange, I didn't karate chop nothing, I just got in the water from being out of the water! I walked into the water! So when I looked at my hand I saw the bee what got me. I figure he was fighting for his life in the water and I didn't realize and scooped him up in my wake, and so in a natural response he views the danger water and myself all as the threat. He was probably trying to sting that water so hard. But he got me.
And I just... flicked him off. I thought 'oh eugh a bee! he got me!' And then I just kept going. Sure my hand smarted, but it's kinda like if someone was just constantly pinching me too hard. I didn't like it. It was uncomfortable. But it was completely surmountable. Granted I suppose I already got a head start on the painkillers but still. That initial sting pain was the worst it got and I know I could handle that pain being worse without already being buzzed. (hehehe)
And so my brain KNOWS that another bee stinging me is not ideal, but it's also really not that big OF a deal. But my reflexes will still avoid a stingin' bug like they got a knife. I think it's really interesting how overblown we view that threat of violence. Especially from the guys that can really only sting you one time. Wasps, on the other hand, can get the hell outta here, I don't want nothing from you sir. Bees are homies by comparison.
I guess the thought I meant to articulate but rambled until I forgot was this: My brain has built up this ingrained fear response to the stinging creatures of the world but all of my experiences being on the stinging end have been pretty trivial all told. I would actively jump out of the ocean if I knew there was a jelly fish floating around. And I would deeply desire to relocate a yellow jacket from my personal bubble when sitting outside. But then when I've been stung by a bee or had a brush with a jelly fish, both of those instances ended up being surprisingly manageable. Like I was surprised that it wasn't as bad as I imagined. So that fear of pain really is this fear of acute inconvenience. And it's really curious how strongly we focus on those and attempt to avoid them. I think I would say the average person attempts to avoid those 'dangers' to an extent greater than the danger that person faces if they didn't. And that's something interesting about human nature.
I aint never been bit by a spider but god knows I avoid those suckers harder than anything. Nuh-uh, I ain't playin with that. Fear's weird.
"So that fear of pain really is this fear of acute inconvenience. And it's really curious how strongly we focus on those and attempt to avoid them. I think I would say the average person attempts to avoid those 'dangers' to an extent greater than the danger that person faces if they didn't."
Very true and valid and wise.
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