XVI
Save the bees
Until I turned 21, I can remember having seen only 1, maybe 2 bees in real life.
Never mind that twice a year, every year for most of my childhood, my grandmother sent up what was maybe 100L of wild honey to my family in Lagos, As far as I was concerned, bees were simply these abstract, and quite DANGEROUS insects. Dangerous? Well, despite the annual 200L worth of proof to the contrary, the most significant thing about bees to my mind was that they stung, and that this hurt like crazy. Then I got into medical school and learned bee stings can rarely trigger anaphylaxis- a serious, life-threatening immune response by your fighter cells to a foreign substance. Unsubscribe me please.
When last year a colony began to build their hive in the roof of the backyard garage, I was, to put it mildly, horrified! My apartment does not have a dryer, so every time I do laundry, I have to hang it out on the line in the backyard to dry. This could not change because there were bees in the yard, I had to figure out a way. The first few times, I’d hold my breath and not be able to breathe easy until I was safely inside again.
Last year took a lot of things from everybody, a lot of what we believed about normalcy was upended and shaken loose. However, one of the few gifts that last year gave was TikTok. No lies- TikTok is amazing. Last year, I began to see several videos of people, whose jobs, training and specialization was in bee farming. These were people you would call if you found a thriving colony in a residential area and didn’t want to call the exterminator. They handled and spoke about bees so differently than id imagined- they’d scoop bees up in their bare hands and tell you the most fascinating facts about bee behaviors within the colonies. I even saw a pre-teenage boy start a bee-farming business with his mother and uncle. These videos demystified bees for me. Bees, they just want to find their crib and chill with the homies and serve their queen and make honey. Literally me! There was also a lot of “save the bees” posts that I think is vaguely related to animal extinction causes, global warming and the devastating effects of the collective and cumulative human footprint.
I sometimes think about Space and wonder if we’re alone. By “we “ I (used to) mean humans. But the truth is, there is already so much incontrovertible evidence to prove that we are categorically not alone. The human microbiome alone is STAGGERING. Not to cross into germophobic territory, but microbiologically, our immune cells are super heroes and protect us against so much on a daily basis. Not to mention the reality that every other organism, even the bees, are earthlings in their own right. Generally speaking, bee behaviors are centered around precise goals that definitely do NOT include finding me and giving me anaphylactic shock. In summary, humans are already not “alone”, not by a long shot. And not only would it not be the wildest thing if there were others that exist in space, we need to recognize and respect the ones we’ve already met.
For whatever reason, the backyard bees one day suddenly upped and left. Abandoned the hive in the roof and everything. I can not lie, I am very relieved. While I agree with #Savethebees, there are likely significant differences and similarities between the TikTok bees and my backyard bees. I am not trying to find out if this is like whe dog owners say “he doesn’t bite” and then you learn painfully that ‘he” does in fact bite. I think its safe to say I no longer get frantic when I see one. I have to emphasize though that this reaction has (and will) only been tested with one single, solitary bee. I am not feigning bravery and rational thinking if there are more than one of them. I am still wholly unwilling to experience a bee sting, not to mention, what if I’m the 1 in 1,000,000 that gets anaphylaxis and dies!?
I guess you could call this the story of how I learned not to be petrified of bees. I still see one or two in the yard sometimes. I always stay out the way and try not to provoke it. And if I absolutely need to be around where one is hovering, I make sure as little skin as possible is exposed and that I get done and get tf on as soon as possible- funny, this is all starting to sound like a metaphor for working in the hospital these COVID times. Focus on finishing your tasks as soon as you can, show as little skin as possible, and leave as soon as you’re done.
