"What would be left of our tragedies if an insect were to present us his?" - Emil Cioran
"Can you see the beauty in a cockroach?" - Wayne Dyer
"A cockroach can't defeat a dinosaur. But the cockroach is better at one thing, and it has ensured its survival through the ages: Adaption. One could adapt to its environment the other could not" - Georges St-Pierre
The word cockroach comes from the Spanish name cucaracha. The scientific name is blattodea, it is a derivative from the Latin term "blatta" meaning, "an insect that shuns the light". And I am going to shine a light on these ancient bugs that have existed on our planet for millions of years. They have been mythologized as disease-carrying pests.
This myth needs to be dismantled, as it perpetuates an anti-life perception that has been programmed into the human psyche. This fictional fable only serves the billion-dollar multi-corporate pesticide industry, rather than the relational value of interspecies connections that support the web of life.
I love myths, I also love busting them when the construction of their story is destructive. I also love to exonerate the insignificant, and the misunderstood. In the culture of killing cockroaches, we are operating from a fear-based myth of destroying something we don't understand.
My first introduction into the world of cockroaches was a rite of passage, an initiation of humility in understanding these seemingly lowly creatures. These underworld dwellers are highly adaptive, it is the key to their survival in fact to anyone's survival. It was during my own 'adaption' phase that I was granted the teachings of these inspirational insects. My life was in survival mode, adapting to my choices that left me on the edge where security and comfort was minimal. If there is one creature on this planet that has mastered the art of survival that would be the cockroach. It is a fallacy though that they could live through a nuclear war, but studies have shown that they are far more resilient to radiation than humans. Their very existence epitomizes the fact that they are evolutionary masters.
There was a time when I lived in a darkened and damp dwelling... it was the perfect environment for cockroaches and place where I shunned the light... this dim ground floor apartment was an incubation space for me to heal and grow, ... where the bright and shiny trappings of the external world ceased to exist.
My humble abode was the perfect place for my time of seclusion, recovery, and processing the lessons of humility. It was my own self-imposed solitary existence. Uninvited guests were not welcome, human or otherwise. So, when a family of cockroaches decided to move in, my inclination was to remove these encroaching roaches, from my premises, by any means... and extermination was the only answer or so it seems.
My misplaced conception of these creatures went from plotting their demise to being an advocate for their place in the world. Setting the baits for them was easy, watching the poison take hold was not. I generally don't prescribe to the use of poisons, unless they have healing qualities, however this drastic approach in eradicating my co- inhabitants seemed justifiable... these carriers of contagion had outlived the dinosaur!
I was not unlike the cockroach as I too was a nocturnal forager. And one fated evening my nightly visit to the refrigerator coincided with witnessing a display of compassion that was a paradigm shifting event. I watched in dismay as a cockroach lay dying helplessly on his back while his mate kept persisting to help him, he did not give up, until he finally turned his mate over to try and save him. This was deeply profound experience for me, realizing these were bugs of benevolence. In that moment my mental programming and learned projections began to glitch and there was a re-wiring of my belief system... With new neurons firing! My curiosity was ignited, and I felt an urge to educate myself into the lives of these despised creatures.
While being confronted with my own unconscious shadow world, I was about to uncover their shadow world and their gifts in the potentials of adversity, and learn their behavioral lessons of resilience, unity and humility... Humility being the key to the truth of evolutionary wholeness, we are one with nature... and our sovereign journey must not impede on the sovereign nature of others, this includes man, creature or insect!
I had been given a misplaced morality towards their existence, a propagandized perception of their 'dirtiness'... lurking critters that subsist on the unsanitary offerings of sub-human terrains ... that threaten human health.
I began to discover they do not endanger life but are intelligent creatures who adapt to life's circumstances. I plummeted from my moral high ground to the depths of humility, the humble dive of stripping away the arrogance of judgement. When we reject, we dissect the wholeness of life, we lose our holiness in witnessing the sacredness of existence.
In any situation of placing ourselves in the position of the 'moral high ground' we lose our grounding and connection to life. Moral conjecture stifles the ethos of true humility which is primal and powerful. Our instinctual natures are our survival. The humble cockroach is both a scavenger and a highly evolved creature of adaption. "Nothing is below them, and nothing is above them in the evolutionary scale of things. Humility and greatness are the variables in the true mastery of life, and this is what the cockroach has to offer in its teachings.
These supposed 'valueless vermin' have served as scapegoats for humanity's destructive urges. And with all war-like thinking/behavior there is always the destruction and collateral damage of the innocent. And indeed, natures creatures are innocent and it our job to protect them from negative projections that cause unnecessary harm...
There is no comprehensive research in the role they play in transmitting disease, and the data is circumstantial evidence, although cockroaches may carry pathogenic bacteria, most strains are harmless. The scientific debate is still questionable. Health research into how cockroaches may benefit humanity is also being done, particularly in the areas of gut microbiome. These seemingly problematic bugs have a creational purpose...
There are more than 500 native cockroaches in Australia. They are plant pollinators and provide a food source for other species. Their ability to recycle plays an instrumental role in producing nitrogen by breaking down waste, decay and organic matter such as leaf litter. They are extremely adaptable to new environments and embrace change. Their sensitive antennas and complex nervous systems are highly responsive to movement within their environment, making them one of the greatest escape artists of the natural world. Their finely attuned sensory abilities can even predict earthquakes. The cockroach's ability to adjust to evolutionary stresses is phenomenal, they have even built up an immunity against certain pesticides, developing detoxification enzymes and altered nerve cell receptors.
They nurse their infants for nine months, and it was discovered
that young cockroaches suffer from "isolation syndrome". Like the human young they need constant physical contact to develop properly. Even beyond the developmental stage cockroaches do not like to be left alone, they suffer from ill-health when they are isolated. These highly social creatures form close-bonded egalitarian societies based on social structures and rules. The continuance of this species is not due to competition or survival of the fittest, it has to do with connection. Cockroach communities are capable of making collective decisions for the greater good of the whole. Maybe that's why they've hung around for so long to teach us humans the true art of survival... 'What effects one, effects all.'
During the day they rest in groups within dark corners and crevices. At night they split up with individual cockroaches roaming in search of food and water. I wonder if their nature was always like that... Hiding during the day and seeking sustenance at night... Or do they now hide because of human harm? Their behaviour is unseen as is their contributive effect on the world... And there is power in that. They are clearers and cleansers that assist the death cycle to potentiate new life, recycling rot that potentizes the creative force, converting decaying clutter and waste into life-giving substances.
It seems that the humble cockroach is my spirit totem. I love the warmth and the dark and left-over food; I have adapted to many colourful circumstances and the not so colourful. I shunned the light, because sometimes it is blinding, and you lose your way. As the colour dimmed I learnt about the journey of the descent. It's a destabilizing influence that drives us inward, in order to stabilize the inner life, rather than relying on the collapsing state of the external.
I have learnt about humility and continue to refine that characteristic. I'm still gaining insight into unity. Living on an Island has brought me this gift of connection. I have established meaningful friendships that have enabled me to trust in humanity, both in myself and others. Human survival is reliant on the unification of all life, our interspecies relations are crucial to our evolutionary development. Sometimes we need to be pushed to the brink of chaos to clarify what is meaningful. It is the survivors of the world that bring forth wisdom, who birth themselves through collapse and endings. You hear of survival stories of those in mental intuitions and prisons who have befriended cockroaches to maintain a fringe of hope in their connection to life. I too created a friendship with a cockroach when I was at a low point. My nephew named him Charles, he lived on my vanity unit, he became so tame you could pat him. I gave him the gift of trust. I will leave his story for another time... I'm trusting the gift of this story has helped to shift the collective lens of hostility and fear towards a species and therefore serving the compassionate nature of the unified human heart.
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