What a Bee Taught Me
One beautiful late spring morning in the garden, I played in the sand pit while my parents attended to their strawberries; I was six.
A heard a buzzing and glanced up to see a bee land on the wall surrounding the pit. It walked around a little, exploring the crevices in the brick. It found no nectar, presumably, and as it took off I jumped up and started chasing it. I circled the garden keeping the bee in my sights. Round and round again. It was so much fun! I began to giggle with delight.
Suddenly the bee swerved. A moment of horror took me as I realised, the hunted had became the hunter. Not laughing now I turned and started running circles around the garden the other way. I started screaming. My parents thought it was all part of the same game and ignored me.
Over my shoulder I could hear the buzzing of the bee, sometimes closer, sometimes more distant. But always there. I was tiring. In my heart I realised that the bee was relentless. And it was going to get me.
The fruitlessness of the chase and the inevitable sting scared me plenty. There was nowhere safe I could run. In my barely developed brain I understood without really understanding that I couldn’t escape into the house, as there wouldn’t be room to circle, and I would be trapped, and stung. But my rapidly fatiguing legs were telling me I couldn’t run forever, and I somehow knew the bee could and would.
My flailing legs eventually stopped doing as I was desperately asking them and I faltered. As I fell the terror of impending pain and the fear of the unknown gripped me.
I was stung. I wailed. My parents came to see why I was crying.
But you know the sting wasn’t that bad. Mum applied something to it and the swelling and pain subsided.
I guess I learnt some important things that day. I learnt empathy. I learnt that fear of the unknown is often worse than the thing you fear. I learnt about karma. I learnt the feeling of futility, and the horror of unstoppable pursuit.
Fantastic story Max, is it true?
There may be a typo in the 6th sentence “presumablt”
When did u write this?
Yes, it’s true
I doubt you remember it, but it’s just one of those events in my life that has really stuck with me. And I think I really did learn those things from it.
A key lesson that you might have missed was ‘Don’t fuck with bees.’