Thursday, January 14, 2010

fleas and evolution




Why did God make fleas and mosquitoes? That's a somewhat interesting question. But the more interesting question is why didn't the fleas and mosquitos develop/evolve a numbing saliva--which is what causes the itch from the bite--that was non irritating?

That would have been a smart evolutionary move on the part of fleas because people and animals would not be at so great pains with scratching, slapping, biting, along with lotions, potions, and poisons to get rid of them. Of course in the grand evolutionary history of fleas, indoor animals are a very recent phenomena, so I suppose there hasn't been enough time to evolve a way to escape poison and assault. Yet fleas are apparently quite quick to evolve resistance to our poisons. So if they were just a little smarter and learned to produce a non-irritating saliva, animals and people would be happier, and so would they. Possibly they are bitter about being so small, and they don't WANT us to be happy, the devilish little critters.

No doubt there was a more holy balance of plants and animals before man became so evolved that he attempted to bulldoze the planet. But man was just evolving into what seemed like the most logical way to survive at the moment. And being a fallen creature, what did you expect?

Cats, on the other hand, have shown great intelligence by evolving into irresistibly cute creatures who know how to relax and enjoy life in most circumstances. And while some dislike cats, quite a lot of people smile and melt when they see a cat and are very eager to either cuddle or feed it. Fleas and mosquitoes are obviously vengeful and dimwitted. Where's the Borax.

4 comments:

  1. I don't have much experience with fleas but those cookies on your blog page header look absolutely irresistible and I just want to take a bite - or several. Please email me some!!!

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  2. I could email you the secret recipe. But they are really so good, I don't advise it. :)

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  3. What a cute cat! I think I'll go cuddle it--

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  4. Below is a partial transcript of a sermon. I have heard and read this story recounted many times. At one point I had the 'official' true story written by one of the sisters, unfortunately, I've misplaced it. No matter, the message is still here.

    Thankfulness and Gratitude

    by Mr. Mike Blackwell

    It was in Nazi Germany, during the darkest days of the last year of World War II, in a concentration camp, two young sisters, Jewish, separated from the rest of their family, found themselves in this concentration camp. It wasn't unusual for the particular people at that time, but they found themselves in a concentration camp, mom and dad had been separated and they found themselves alone, yet determined to survive. The younger one said, "In order to survive, we have to stay positive and optimistic." The older one said, "Well how are you going to do that?" So they talked about it and they worked through it and they began to work and it worked out for a while but then things got worse as the Allies got closer, the treatment got worse. Many of the young ladies, young women, were beaten, tortured and abused and the younger one said, "We have to stay positive, we have to be thankful for what we have here." The older one said, "What in the world are you talking about?" And so time went on and if things couldn't get any worse by the treatment they got, their dormitory became absolutely crawling and infested with fleas, biting, crawling all over, just absolutely all day long and the older one looked at the younger and said, "What about now?" She said, "Well, we need to be thankful for the fleas." I don't know if you ever thought about being thankful for the fleas or not, but it's interesting that later these two young girls were discovered, they survived and come to find out, of all the dorms that had the women in them, their dorm was the only one where no one was tortured or abused. Now you may wonder why. Well it was interesting because the occupiers, the Nazi officers, didn't want to go in there because of the fleas! So even fleas, at times, if you look at it, even fleas at times can be a blessing.

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