I just returned from an exotic African safari (editor's note: this is fiction), and I'd like to share with you the details of a new species I discovered, the Balancing Beetle. These critters vary widely in size, with the smallest being almost microscopic, and the largest rivaling even the big jungle cats. They come in all shapes and colors, in fact the wide variety of "personalities" I observed in the beetles almost made me feel a kind of kinship with them, like I was observing some fellow human beings.
These hard-shelled insects got their name from the peculiar way they seem to live their lives. They never leave the Fractal Trees which are their homes. But upon any given Fractal Tree, each specimen clings stubbornly to whatever "branch" it currently inhabits. You can watch it crawl up and down the branch, carefully keeping its equilibrium, and in most cases, the bug will live its whole life on the same branch where it was born! And when I speak of "branches", here, the word can include not just the actual branches, but the smaller twigs which stem from them, or the tiny shoots found on each twig, or the tinier shoots on those, and so on.
Each of these eccentric insects carefully regulates his growth so that he can remain on his chosen twig or shoot. Thus, if you squint at the tiniest offshoot of the Fractal Tree, you can barely make out some almost-microscopic Balancing Beetles going about their routines. Watch out, though, you don't want to take your eyes off the tree-trunk, where giant "megabeetles" wander, massive enough to break your spine just by accidentally stepping on you. To some of them, I was like a bug!
What baffles me is just why exactly these funny coleoptera cling so stubbornly to their branches, their twigs, their shoots. Occasionally, you'll see a beetle get knocked off its chosen bough. As it flies through the air, it makes a terrible screech, flailing its limbs in terror. Quickly it'll catch a new branch, always a larger one than the last. And then, with astonishing speed, the little anthropod settles into the new routine for its new home, and grows accordingly.
After many long observations, I theorize that what keeps my colorful friends clutching at even the tiniest little branchling, is some sort of horrible fear of change or of the unknown. Unable, with their tiny eyes, to even see the world of larger, welcoming treebranches all around them, they just assume that there's nowhere else to advance, that they've done all the growing they can ever possibly do.
I wonder whether there's really any limit at all to how big these crazy creatures can become. I shudder to imagine what would happen if one of the "megabeetles" tumbled from the massive Fractal Treetrunk: it might swell to such proportions it could conquer the world!
About The Author
Raised in California, Glowing Face Man's first occupation was sandwich-making for minimum wage. Later, he joined the Air Force and became a weather forecaster. In that role, he broadcast weather watches and warnings with the power to close down any puny little sandwich-shops like the one he used to work for. However, he was unsatisfied with that branch of service, always having to prostrate himself before even the lowest-ranking commissioned officer. He got out of the military and took up mathematics. Now he's a math PhD student and he pays the bills by teaching math to undergraduates. Ironically his students include plenty of shaved-headed ROTC men and women, future officers of the armed forces; so that in a sense, GFM has far outgrown his former station.
FURTHER READING
The Mirror
Meeting The Geisha
The Juggling Balls of Destiny
These hard-shelled insects got their name from the peculiar way they seem to live their lives. They never leave the Fractal Trees which are their homes. But upon any given Fractal Tree, each specimen clings stubbornly to whatever "branch" it currently inhabits. You can watch it crawl up and down the branch, carefully keeping its equilibrium, and in most cases, the bug will live its whole life on the same branch where it was born! And when I speak of "branches", here, the word can include not just the actual branches, but the smaller twigs which stem from them, or the tiny shoots found on each twig, or the tinier shoots on those, and so on.
Each of these eccentric insects carefully regulates his growth so that he can remain on his chosen twig or shoot. Thus, if you squint at the tiniest offshoot of the Fractal Tree, you can barely make out some almost-microscopic Balancing Beetles going about their routines. Watch out, though, you don't want to take your eyes off the tree-trunk, where giant "megabeetles" wander, massive enough to break your spine just by accidentally stepping on you. To some of them, I was like a bug!
What baffles me is just why exactly these funny coleoptera cling so stubbornly to their branches, their twigs, their shoots. Occasionally, you'll see a beetle get knocked off its chosen bough. As it flies through the air, it makes a terrible screech, flailing its limbs in terror. Quickly it'll catch a new branch, always a larger one than the last. And then, with astonishing speed, the little anthropod settles into the new routine for its new home, and grows accordingly.
After many long observations, I theorize that what keeps my colorful friends clutching at even the tiniest little branchling, is some sort of horrible fear of change or of the unknown. Unable, with their tiny eyes, to even see the world of larger, welcoming treebranches all around them, they just assume that there's nowhere else to advance, that they've done all the growing they can ever possibly do.
I wonder whether there's really any limit at all to how big these crazy creatures can become. I shudder to imagine what would happen if one of the "megabeetles" tumbled from the massive Fractal Treetrunk: it might swell to such proportions it could conquer the world!
About The Author
Raised in California, Glowing Face Man's first occupation was sandwich-making for minimum wage. Later, he joined the Air Force and became a weather forecaster. In that role, he broadcast weather watches and warnings with the power to close down any puny little sandwich-shops like the one he used to work for. However, he was unsatisfied with that branch of service, always having to prostrate himself before even the lowest-ranking commissioned officer. He got out of the military and took up mathematics. Now he's a math PhD student and he pays the bills by teaching math to undergraduates. Ironically his students include plenty of shaved-headed ROTC men and women, future officers of the armed forces; so that in a sense, GFM has far outgrown his former station.
FURTHER READING
The Mirror
Meeting The Geisha
The Juggling Balls of Destiny
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