Back when I was visiting a friend in Curahuasi, Perú I spent the days relaxing and reading while she was working with the local children. During that time I would spend most of it in this hut that was made for social gatherings sitting in comfortable chairs reading. Every once in a while I would look up from my book and gaze out onto the mountains across the valley and get lost in thought; it was on one of those occasions that my attention was drawn down to the cement floor where a little wasp was crawling around.
At first I was wondering why this creature of flight would confine itself to moving around on its legs until I noticed that about half of its right wing was missing rendering it unable to fly. When it did try, it would start flapping its wings rapidly only to be flipped over on its side unable to balance out the forces created by the disproportionate wings. After each failed attempt it would wander seemingly aimlessly around the floor before trying again with the same results each time. Then I noticed the wasp begin to climb up a nearby chair leg to gain some altitude before attempting flight again; when it felt it had gotten high enough it flapped its way off the leg and back on the the ground below to resume its dejected meandering around.
This went on for hours and hours as I sat out there reading, now when my attention was pulled from my book it wasn’t towards the mountain I looked but for my wasp companion. Sometimes I would find it quickly other times I would have to get up and look around before I spotted it trying to regain its lost skill. I began to take a liking of this little bug, and couldn’t help but bee (yes I stuck this pun in here) a little inspired by its seeming endless determination to fly once more. I had assumed it wasn’t long for this world, while my biology knowledge is limited I am pretty sure wasps are not one of the animals that can regrow parts. But I figured I could make its limited time left more comfortable by helping it eat, so I got a twig and scooped up the wasp and brought it to the flower garden set it down on a flower so it could potentially eat (that’s how it works, right?) where it stayed for a moment before jumping off and trying to fly again landing in the dirt of the garden where I lost sight of it probably to be eaten by ants.
While I never saw that wasp again it did leave and indelible mark on me; while it was incapable of the higher mental processes needed to ponder the meaning behind its motives that doesn’t stop me from doing the same. To me this wasp represents both the sheer optimism of the will to persevere and overcome the obstacles before you and the futility of life. No matter how how hard you try in the end we all will lose out to death. That doesn’t mean we should give up and wait for the inevitable to show up at our doorstep, but rather we should continue to strive to push forth past a seemingly insurmountable opponent because while we may not accomplish what we set out to in our lifetime but someone of the next generation may just build off of your work to solve the problem.
So it’s safe to assume that wasp never took flight again and I doubt it inspired the next generation of insects to construct a prosthetic wing but it got me thinking which is something. The next time you feel stuck and that continuing to try is a fruitless endeavour remember that your actions have a wider audience than just yourself, and you never know when a helping hand is going to carry you to where you need to go.