With sadness, the cicada season is coming to an end. Time to reflect on these wonderful creatures.
First encountering cicadas at age 13, I was saddened that these delicate creatures can live above ground for only three to six weeks. How short of a time to enjoy life? As a teenager, I reflected that, whether it be the cicada’s three to six weeks or the human species’ average of 72 to 73 years, one’s life span relative to eternity is essentially zero (any number divided by infinity is zero). At age 13, I was taught by cicadas that every day must be greeted with enthusiasm and appreciation; every day is precious.
When I saw them next at age 30, I encouraged my girlfriend at the time to embrace the amazingness of the cicadas — their single-minded focus on procreation, their dedication to their mission and, of course, their beauty. All she could see was that they were “gross bugs.” Unable to expand her thinking, she demonstrated to me the importance of surrounding oneself with people who are open-minded and willing to look at life in expansive and creative ways.
Seventeen years later, at age 47, with young children, I enjoyed spending time on the beach marveling at these insects. My family and I let them walk on our arms and enjoyed watching them waddle around on the ground and fly in air. Our eyes were opened to enjoying the beauty and wonder of being outside, in nature. Who needs TV? We threw our television out, and it has not reappeared since. Cicadas taught our family that one only need to look and be outside to enjoy the wonders of life.
And now at age 64, I reflect on the last time in my life that I will witness these beautiful insects, with their beautiful sound, their beautiful focus on every second of their short above-ground life. With cicadas as my example, I am redirected to using my remaining time to beautify other’s lives, to give back.
It’s with sadness that I say goodbye to these wonderful creatures, but it is also with a smile on my face for all their good teachings.
Fly on, little wing, to your next spiritual habitat. And thank you for coming out and saying “hello” to me every 17 years, and by so doing, teaching me about how life can be lived.
— Lou Harrison, Glencoe
So many years spent waiting
Mounting the bike for the ride’s remainder, he planned on avoiding as many hit-and-runs possible with the 17-year cicadas that had taken over his township with their physical and sonic ostentatiousness. Harmless, gentle creatures, quite clumsy in flight and fearless of head-on impacts with any vertical object resembling a tree, such as a human. Amassing in the billions for one of nature’s most confounding reproductive cycles.
Still, it saddened him each time he found one flattened under foot or tire, with all the years they spend below ground waiting for a moment that barely arrives, or doesn’t, considering the millions that are eaten or that never find a mate, or both. Then again, maybe their near two decades in the dirt before their final summer demands they come of age in a beneficent period of sagely calm, stasis and safety? A symbolic nod to patience and acceptance given the meager soil confines.
Maybe in the ground is a grand celebration, too, a network of tunnels leading to free tree sap and friends. So he liked to think.
— Matthew David Bade, Villa Park
Time for cicadas to bug off
Is it just me or has the novelty of the cicada invasion worn off for anyone else?
— Dan Wasser, Wheaton
Court ruling does us harm
U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and the court’s other conservative justices have done us a gross disservice in allowing bump stock gun attachments to be legal again. I ask those seated in the highest judicial office: What good does this bring our country?
Bump stocks were banned after the mass shooting at a Las Vegas music festival. Do we need another mass shooting of such great loss to have us rethink this reversal?
I applaud Justice Sonia Sotomayor’s common sense that these attachments do, in fact, do the same damage as an automatic assault weapon and should in fact be banned.
Where is the common sense and the well-being of citizens in all of this?
— Beth Shannon, Oak Park
Point of forced-reset triggers?
The U.S. Supreme Court struck down a ban on bump stocks, which allow a rifle to fire like a machine gun. And now restrictions on forced-reset triggers that allow shooters to fire more than 900 rounds a minute with one squeeze may be lifted.
I ask the manufacturer of these triggers: What on earth do your customers use these guns for? Target shooting? Maybe they should get their eyes checked if they need 900 bullets to get a bulls-eye. Hunting? They’re littering the environment with shells. Plus any food from the animal they shoot will taste metallic. If they’re trophy hunting, the taxidermist needs more money. Protection? I hope there are no kids in their house and they’re good with wall repair.
Users should let us know what sport or reason they need a gun that shoots so many bullets with one squeeze of the trigger.
— Jelmir Atkins, Sycamore
Support for maritime act
As we mark the anniversary of the enactment of the Jones Act, the statutory foundation of American maritime, events here and around the world — from extreme weather to war in the Middle East and Ukraine — continue to challenge the nation’s supply chain, and Americans are counting on the expertise, tenacity and ingenuity of Illinois mariners more than ever to keep us moving. Our state House of Representatives acknowledged this when it recently passed House Resolution 0291 recognizing the importance of the Jones Act.
The Jones Act is a federal law that requires that vessels moving cargo between points in the U.S. be American-built, -owned and -crewed, preventing foreign vessels and crews from moving cargo on our domestic waterways. It is the guarantor of American maritime’s viability, critical to the thousands of Illinois commercial mariners that ply our inland rivers and Great Lakes, the numerous shipyards across America that provide Illinois maritime companies with their vessels, and the shipping customers and Illinois communities that rely on the Jones Act fleet as a key enabler of America’s security, prosperity and quality of life.
As the resolution notes, the Jones Act supports more than 19,000 jobs in Illinois and generates more than $1.3 billion in worker income and $4.87 billion for the Illinois economy. At the national level, the Jones Act supports 650,000 jobs and generates more than $154 billion in annual economic output.
The Jones Act is also vital to our homeland security. It ensures that the Coast Guard is not faced with the extra burden of tracking foreign vessels on domestic waters and that sensitive military readiness responsibilities, such as transporting supplies on our waterways to U.S. bases and guiding Navy vessels safely into and out of U.S. ports, are not left to foreign vessels. Also, that China — which is developing and operating maritime assets in other nations in an effort to dominate the global supply chain — does not get the opportunity to extend its maritime influence into the United States.
Illinois’s maritime community is a key contributor to our state and nation and indispensable to our future. Thank you to our elected representatives in Springfield for recognizing the role of Illinois maritime and the importance of the Jones Act in making that possible.
— Del Wilkins, president, Illinois Marine Towing Inc., Joliet
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