Tom the Dancing Bug by Ruben Bolling for March 23, 2023

Native Americans believe(d) they belong to the earth mother, not the other way around.

Damselfly? I thought it was a dragonfly.

I tried to look it up but biologists use a whole different dictionary.

Get to the chapter where the Red-Winged Blackbirds devour all the damselflies.

As long as they stay away from my crabgrass I won’t resort to violence!

Next up Dung beetles. All your crap is belonging to us!

Damselfly = Ukraine?

Actually, Red-winged blackbirds live in marshes not woodlands, not that it’s really relevant to the story.

Here’s a summary of the background: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4pKMV6e5kEo

If damselflies could talk, apparently they’d never shut up.

The Turks have only been in Istanbul (not Constantinople) since 1453, and only in Anatolia as a whole about 400 years longer. I’m not aware of any popular movements to make Turkiye Byzantine again (been a long time gone, Constantinople), but wars have been fought over more remote claims…

Having seen red-winged blackbirds only in enormous flocks, I’d be surprised if they were at all territorial.

I don’t think I can handle a 2023 version of this; I’m black-pilled enough.

Can’t imagine what an aching thorax would feel like.

Anything like a toothache?

I think “ephemeral fly” more adequately describes the species, but it might be the same as the damselfly. At any rate, Bolling shows just how fleeting our lives are in a deep-time universe.

I’ve long said that the lovely sound of bird song would translate as either “This is my tree!” or “I want to have sex right now!”