Life: Idiotropic

This evening I'm sitting on the couch deeply enthralled with a new book when I hear excited tones in the three young voices outside.  My mother's hearing tunes in to hear words like "precious creature" and questions like "what do they eat?"  "Let's make a house for him."  Then I hear two little voices of agreement.  A moment later, Luci and Arianna come inside asking if we have honey.

They have a bee and they want to feed it.

No, girls.  We can't feed the bee.  And please don't touch him.  He's slow now in the cold of the evening, but he can still sting you.  Please be careful.

And they scurry around and put him gently into the styrofoam "castle" that Arianna's been working on.  When I go out to check on him, he's been covered gently with a piece of fleece to keep him warm on this chilly night.

Now it's bedtime and Luci's worried about her bee.  We move him to a more "natural" setting - clinging to a shoot in a potted palm.  Luci picks yellow flowers since bees like yellow.  They should make him feel at home.   She adds bees now to her list of favorite animals and cries a little at bedtime because she's worried about him and hopes he doesn't die in the night.

She is upset that people are so cruel to insects.  "We need to protect them," she says.  So we are.  I wonder if this little bee realizes just how lucky he is.  My girls are awfully special.