Greed, Envy and Energy

Greed has a way of capturing and consuming those who succumb to its allure.  We have a lot of common garden spiders on our place.  Their signature webs with the "stitching" through the middle connect many of the trees along the edge of the woods to the grass of the pasture beside it.  They take advantage of what is called "edge" which is the point where one type of habitat abuts against another -- such as forest and meadow.  The spider whose web is shown above seems to have hit the jackpot with a double catch.  It appears a cicada blundered into the net and a Great Black Digger Wasp became entangled as it attacked what was likely a struggling cicada.

The cicada likely became captive out of blind bad luck, but the wasp saw an easy catch and went for it, only to become a victim as well.  It died from greed or, perhaps it was envy?  You can't really attribute human feelings to insects, but for purposes of analogy it might work.  Let's go with envy; the wasp saw what the spider had and decided to take it.

The whole scenario made me think of a verse in Proverbs:

"A heart at peace gives life to the body, but envy rots the bones." -- Proverbs 14:30

In the case of the wasp, it is quite literally rotting as it hangs suspended in the web.  It will be a slow decomposition because all of the nutrition-laden juices have already been sucked out by the spider.  It is really just a shell that once held a vital life that plays an important role in the ecosystem.  Okay, I admit, part of its role is to be food for something else in the ecosystem.  The trouble with that particular aspect of its life-journey is that it terminates any other part of its existence.  Well, maybe not.  I suppose you have to consider that the physical matter will decompose and be recycled, but the vital energy of its life has now been expended.

I seem to be rambling a bit this morning, but it is somewhat intentional.  Let's head back to that verse quoted above.  "A heart at peace gives life..."  That's the part that is so very difficult for most of us.  We are never satisfied -- at peace with ourselves.  That lack of satisfaction drains energy from us.

I'm not saying we shouldn't be continually seeking to improve; I'm saying that each and every moment we should accept who we are and find the value in our daily progress toward becoming what we are meant to be.  Again, it is about being at peace with yourself, not about becoming stagnant.  This life is all about "becoming."  Hmmm....how do I explain what I mean?  Life is about becoming the best we can be.  We should be pouring energy into the system -- helping each other be better, to grow.  It's not about "taking," it's about giving.  It's about lifting others up and helping them to become greater than they believe is possible.

Enough of philosophy this morning.  Come to think of it, maybe the wasp was just trying to help the cicada get free of the web...nah.