Sunny Side Up with Kathleen Gibson May 28, 2008 Don�t Blame God for the Pirates God created the mosquito, and though I�ve lately wished he hadn�t, I�m sure he had the best of motives. He always does. Eliminating them would doubtless cause the the entire food chain to come unlinked. We may miss the birds (and frogs and lizards and fish) after awhile. But somehow I forgot that one warm day recently when three mosquitoes, beating their diaphanous wings a thousand times a second, eagerly entered our dwelling in search of a blood meal. I�m not sure exactly which of the 2,500 species they were, but they had no right to whine and dine in my home. �It�s a pirate!� I yelled, when one of them did a flypast near me. �Get it! Get it!� shouted the Preacher, eyes wild, his good hand alternating between pointing and twirling his wheelchair. �It�s over there�No, there! Oh NO, there�s another one�BEHIND YOU�.HIGHER! Do you blame the man for panicking? He�s still fighting the pirates (as we call West Nile Disease) that attacked him last summer�he�s not partial to go a second round. Neither am I. So even if those three blasted bugs weren�t likely from the species Culex tarsalus, most responsible for West Nile Disease, I grabbed the nearest weapon�a Canadian Tire flyer, I believe it was�and set about to eliminate them. I slaughtered two. The third escaped when someone entered the house and stood slack-jawed watching our free show. I prefer to think that one was a male anyway�they�re all vegetarians. I don�t admire much about mosquitoes, but I wish I had their tenacity. One African species lay their eggs in the desert sand, where they don�t hatch until a freak rain, as many as ten years later. (Perhaps our third villain high-winged it to the basement to hide out the rest of what has been a nastily cold spring.) Before the mosquito that infected the Preacher poked its proboscis into our program, we knew little about their dark side. We�ve learned a bit since, and we�d like to stop the pirates�or at least slow them down a bit. (Even though they helped him lose weight, he doesn�t recommend the diet.) Along with other West Nile survivors, we�ve begun sharing our experiences with anyone interested in knowing more about the effects of this perplexing disease. With the cooperation of others, recently organized a local West Nile Information night. He�s also been talking to the media (other than me!). (If you live in Canada, you may have seen some of those newspaper articles. If you�re curious, a few are online: try Google-ing, West Nile Disease, Rick Gibson.) By the way, don�t blame God for the viruses mosquitos carry�or any other illness and woe known to man. The Bible indicates that disease�like sin�was never God�s plan. It entered our history as a consequence of Adam and Eve�s choice to rebel against him in the garden, and it�s stayed ever since. As usual, it�s we humans who mucked things up. �2008 Kathleen Gibson Respond Home |
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