Where I live, yards, trees, buildings, cars and even human torsos have become the chosen perches for millions of 17-year cicadas. Their raspy singing fills the soundscape. Still, I’m not concerned about having to share the world with God’s red-eyed insects. As a bona-fide older gentleman, let me tell you why I enjoy cicadas….
Their buzzing/clicking fits my hearing needs.
My hearing aids have a helpful “Background Noise” feature—sounds of rain, pounding surf, etc. These white noises can block my tinnitus. Cicadas’ chorusing adds a new, interesting feature to these tinnitus remedies. The ringing in my ears is no match for cicadas!
I have something new to see.
I can watch for creeping/crawling beings everywhere. I can rejoice with squirrels who have discovered a new food source. I can look for other natural predators—flying, crawling, slithering, hopping—who might also enjoy these free meals!
My powers of imagination are increasing.
The cicadas have inspired my inventiveness. I conjure up their mindsets (?), these living creatures who’ve been waiting in the ground for this short spurt of sun-soaked living. I wonder if they’re patient. I’m amazed how any single cicada’s singing stands out from all the rest. I imagine what might satisfy cicadas in their last moments.
Cicadas expand my thinking.
These durable creatures might be metaphors for any of us who’ve chosen to live like hermits—perhaps struggling whether to crawl out of our own exoskeletons. I think about how, like some people, cicadas’ long years of underground invisibility prepare them for the driven frenzies of their later-in-life purposes. How we might otherwise be cicada-like….
They may live among us for only a few days. But like the rest of God’s creation, cicadas are welcome evidence that life goes on.
No matter how long it takes….
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