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I am a mother, a teacher, and a nature lover. I grew up on a mountain we called Owls' Knob in the Ozarks of Arkansas. The first seven years of my life were spent living in a log cabin, far from a store or streetlight, without electricity or running water and after twenty years of travel, I returned to the abondoned homestead. Now I live on a hill by a small lake and work at a public garden. These are stories about nature written from a women deeply influenced by place.

Friday, November 19, 2010

Overcrowding

Locusts have appeared and disappeared mysteriously throughout history. People wondered where they came from and where they went, until it was discovered that they were never a separate species, but a stage of life. A locust is actually a mad grasshopper. When certain species of grasshoppers become overcrowded, they go through a metamorphous. They turn darker, gather in masses, and grow wings. They transform into a swarming, ravishing plague. In hoards they take flight and reproduce like crazy. Luckily, their offspring are not locusts but solitary grasshoppers.
In light of this, I can’t help but wonder if we too are locusts. Have we been driven by overcrowding to change from our natural state into monsters who rape, pillage, and kill? If so, will we produce more locusts or will our children be grasshoppers?  

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