The Cicadas in my area are starting, finally to decrease in numbers. It's been interesting dealing with them. They are ugly, they stink, they come out by the billions. They leave holes in the ground and their dead husks everywhere. They sound like they are from Mars. Some idiot actually ate some Cicadas and nearly died from hives. I had to clean them up by the hundreds from my yard, and they made me want to retch each time. Had to wear a face mask.
Still I'm glad they come. If they disapeared the world would have lost something awsome and wonderful. And I'd be very worried. Like when the little canary dies in a mine shaft. Sometimes the plagues are preferrable to death. If the Cicadas ever disapear be very worried.
Posted by cholte at June 13, 2004 06:13 PMWe don't have them in California, sadly. I remember growing up in Pennsylvania (in the Appallachian foothills southeast of Pittsburgh), and the year they came out. As a boy it was great! I collected hundreds of the shells they leave all over the place, and because they have the little claw thingies, I was able to hang them on the curtains and such all over the house.
Of course, when Mom found them, she was not amused. No sense of humor.
But I remember them everywhere that year, and the noise at night and all. Nice memories.
Cheers!
Andy
Posted by: Andy Hanlen at June 16, 2004 07:56 AMChris; Your blog spooked me because I started today to do a blog about.....cicadas....
How strange!
We do not have them in UK (or Finland) so they are something I associate with Japan and going on Tozan in the summer time....
When I first heard them going at it all day long I was mesmerised...this constant chorus of lifeform so alien to me yet with a beauty of its own.
I was at Taisekiji one time in August and kept hearing these eerie yelps at nightfall...
I can't really describe the sound. But I had no idea what it was.
I was one evening sitting outside a lodging Temple and chatting with Reverend Yamada about this and that and then there was that sound again! I asked Rev Yamada what it was and he told me it was a cicada. He then told me about the lifespan of cicadas and how they live most of their lives underground. I think he said 7 and sometimes 17 years to emerge above ground for a brief period to mate and then they die. Before they die they let out this odd loud wailing sound (which is what I heard). And Rev Yamada said it was that they were announcing to the universe that they exist!He said the cicada was saying: "I Exist!"
Ever since then when I hear that eerie yelping sound I feel moved to tears...it is just so moving to me to think about these strange creatures and that they too, just like us, have this innate need to make their mark in this saha world. (Not that a scientist would agree with the explanation as to why they do it...but to me it makes perfect sense...).
So to me this sound siginifies the importance of all life...how everything has a right to exist and how everything has a meaning and a purpose.
I don't need to do my blog on the topic now....
Here is a poem by Basho, the famous haiku poet of Japan , about the mysterious cicada ( the traditional form of haiku in Japanese is to have 17 syllables which also denotes the 17 years the cicada spend undergound before emerging for its brief time in daylight!) :
"In the cicada's cry
No sign can foretell
How soon it must die."
Best, Jussi.
Posted by: jussi at June 16, 2004 01:49 PMHey Chris!
I remember you from what seems like a million years ago. From time to time I poke around the web for Gakkai stuff and this time you popped up all over.
Are you in the Laurel area?