Where Have All the Flowers Gone?

Did I say Flowers? Well they really haven’t gone anywhere. The larger question is, where have all the Geckos gone? As soon as the weather got cold they disappeared! The last few years I have observed that their population increased exponentially. They have been doing a good job at controlling the population of “no see’ums” ,ants and all other smaller pests that they eat.

I was trying to figure out how their population is held in check until I saw white Egrets that are wading birds strolling near my palm trees and Ixora plants picking off a gecko or two. I also became aware that the “fat cat” or larger Geckos who have more clout in their society are the residents of my sliding storm shutters. When I open the shutters twice a year to clean out the tracks and lubricate them , a startled extra large Gecko or two runs out and they seem to be the resident landlords of the preferred shelters. I am afraid that if I were to open them any time soon, a few dehydrated Gecko corpses will plop out.

The question remains to be answered, did they die, freeze, hibernate, dig down under or just get picked off by predators while in a state of torpor. I am used to wondering how I can’t get anywhere near my Agave plants to cut them back or trim them without getting stuck on then sharp thorns or stuck by the sharp tips ; luckily in my forehead and not my eyes. Yet these little fragile creatures use the Agave leaves as a sliding pond harmlessly.

Recently the local newspapers ran articles about large iguanas breeding uncontrollably and messing up areas from Miami all the way past Boynton Beach with no local laws of funding to get rid of these creatures who are not native to Florida. We read that only a cold snap would rid us of these pests and as soon as the temperature hovered near the thirty degree mark they dropped from the trees like flies. This saved the various counties a small fortune of money that was not even available for the purpose of trapping and destroying.

It makes me wonder if we are all being controlled by some larger more powerful force that controls our destiny. It’s like the cartoon showing two goldfish in a bowl and a human drops in a few flakes of fish food and one fish says to the other, “You see, I told you there is a God”.

Is the natural order of things for nations to be unable to get along with each other and fight for territory, language , religion or national purpose? Don’t we humans have enough to do to survive against natural selection, disease, the environment, greed of those polluting our air and water?

To see disasters such as what happened to the destitute people in Haiti should give us sobering pause to realize how lucky we are to be livings where we are and how fortunate we are to be able to help. It is inconceivable to me that these things happen without some grander scheme by uncontrollable forces of nature or a force that we don’t yet understand or are unaware of? Is it some cruel feature of natural selection to cull the population? Are wars to take the cream of youth since the beginning of time a way of stopping over population that causes famine, pestilence and disease? These are imponderables that come to mind. Are we being programmed by another galaxy?

Why, oh why do people who are innocent plucked away from us like a flower that has not fully bloomed? Why do babies get cancer or are born with holes in their heart? Isn’t it enough that we try to try to be decent human beings doing our personal best against our own demons and shortcomings? Why is it that some careless person barreling down the street or some drug crazed fool playing with weapons kill helpless people who happen to be a the wrong place at the wrong time? Just pick up any newspaper in a major city and see tragedy after tragedy. I won’t even watch the news at bedtime anymore before I go to sleep.

Redemption is when you hear about someone giving a kidney or bone marrow to a stranger or other human being. Redemption is when you hear about a couple who adopt only children who nobody else will take. Redemption is when a community raises hundreds of thousands of dollars for medical search to stem the diseases that shorten our lives.

We must be as charitable as we can to help other human beings (and animals as well) so that the earth can survive with fresh air, water and food for all of our generations and we must never give up the hope that nations will find a way to live with each other in our planet in peace. We must be worthy of our blessed existence.