It’s there, the little bugger, I know it! I can’t see it, can’t hear it, but it’s there. That little, quiet blood sucking son of a ….hrrmm… who is leaving its combat with a wounded victim and a belly full of blood. It’s my blood it is after, sucking it drop by drop until it flies away with satisfaction. The mosquitoe knows it can be facing its destiny any second, but it is more than willing to take the risk because the risk is very small to be caught. If I would have seen and heard it, I would have crushed it, smashed it, squeezed it to a tiny black and red muss and had a vicious smile on my face. I would have whispered quietly: Ha, meet your destiny. You will never hurt me again!
When it comes to mosquitoes, I show no mercy at all. I know they are of some kind of use, birds and bats eat them, but me? Mosquitoes love me, deeply and sincerely, but unfortunately for them I don’t love them back. These vicious cowards are attacking me when I am sleeping. I am a defenceless victim for their silent combat attacks during nighttime. The result of their love affair with my unprotected body leaves me scratching the itching, red marks that often are placed in inconvenient places, hard to reach. Every summer it is the same for me, red spots on my pale skin, scratch marks everywhere, wounds that are healing after a night scratching myself in the sleep, leaving blood traces on my bedsheet.
I called the mosquitoe a son of a …… but the blood sucking ones are actually females. They need the blood to be able to produce eggs, tiny, tiny mosquitoe eggs. If they at least would have produced eggs large enough for me to have for my breakfast, but no. These selfish creatures only use me for their own purposes, to create more blood sucking, annoying small mosquitoes ready for combat! I don’t approve to be used by anyone, and especially not by blood suckers. Leave me alone and attack someone else. I use mosquitoe repellent in buckets, I dress in long sleeved shirts and long trousers. I try to stay indoors at nighttime, but they will always find me, no matter what!
The tiniest crack in a mosquitoe net, and they know I am inside there. The temptation is too large for them, and no hole is too small for them to enter. I must be so yummy, have blood of the highest quality because there is no mosquitoe that can resist me. I’m sure they will contact their tiny buddies and tell them where this delicious lady lives. At the moment I am in The Gambia and so many mosquitoes are happy to see me. Perhaps they have read the messages I have sent for my friends here, where I told them when I will arrive and where I will stay. Every night these faithful little creatures come to greet me, sometimes alone and other times in crowds.
The Gambian mosquitoes are of another kind than the ones in Sweden. Our Swedish mosquitoes make a small buzzing sound so you will know that they are around. They seem to be slower than the Gambian mosquitoes, because I am able to defend myself against them.
Are the Gambian mosquitoes trained by the former NIA? They attack in the darkness, sneaky little buggers that show no mercy at all. They attack you when are unprepared and vulnerable. They know where you are, there are no hiding places clever enough because the combat mosquitoes knows your every movement.
You hope and pray that you will not be attacked, not tonight, not ever, but your prayers remain unheard.
The combat trained mosquitoes don’t care about your efforts to be as invisible as possible. They will find you, they sense your fear and know that you can’t defend yourself against them. They are smaller, faster and smarter than you. They don’t care about your title, your profession or whatever us humans find important and perhaps to brag about.
If we should try to find anything positive to say about mosquitoes, it is that they treat us all as equals. As long as they can have a meal on our blood, all is well. The poorest guy tastes just as delicious as the president.
Perhaps we could learn something from them, not sucking blood out of anyone of course, but treating one another as equals. We shouldn’t treat our fellow human beings differently just because they have a different pay grade than you.
Listen to these three words; fellow human beings. Englishmen tend to sing ”For he’s a jolly good fellow” when they are celebrating someone they like. Did you know that the word ”fellow” is a very old Scandinavian word? It came from the word felagi, which means ”one who puts down property”. It might sound strange, but these felagi persons laid together their property for the common good. They were generous people who thought of their fellow human beings and didn’t focuse on themselves alone.
Languages evolve, just as societies and people, but greed seems to haunt us in every generation. Let us continue with explaining the expression ”fellow human being”. The word human means someone who is not an animal, but it also means that you care about other people and you treat them with respect. Even if you should work as a prison guard, you are supposed to treat the inmates as people, not someone you can use as a punching bag or a victim for your sexual lust. So what about the last word; being? In this case it means conscious existence.
Conscious existence, what on earth does that mean? I will try to find out, and please follow me along this journey of my mind. Looking at synonyms for the word ”conscious” we will find these words:
aware, mindful, sensible and knowing. Aware of what? Aware of the important things in life, being mindful and not hurting one another if it can be avoided. Being sensible so you will protect yourself as well as others from harm. Knowing as in knowing the difference between good and bad and make the right choices in life. So a fellow human being means more than just an expression for other people. It means that we actually should care about others and treat them with respect, the same way we wish to be treated.
Isn’t it amazing where a story about annoying mosquitoes can lead us? That something we care so little about, and we would prefer to erase from the face of the earth, actually deserves respect, that we can learn something from them. Perhaps if we would act more like ”fellow human beings”, we could learn something from even the tiniest creatures? Next time you scratch your mosquitoe bites, thank your Creator for always giving us new insights, if we are willing to listen.
