America’s Fly Problem
I don't know if they're fruit flies, fleas, or gnats. But these minor miscreants are annoying.
They buzz in small sporadic circles. One second, they're in front of your face moving as sporadically as a caffeine-juiced Sonic the Hedgehog, and the next, they've seemingly disappeared. Then they return and disappear again just as quickly. It almost feels like a taunt.
I'm sure it's a taunt. You try watching TV, and one flies into your line of vision. SWAT! You swipe and miss. "It's a fly," you respond to your wife's eye contact, trying to ensure her you have not gone mad—yet.
You're enjoying dinner, and one tries making a nest on your plate. WHACK! You smack the table only to make a mess of your meal—and yourself.
You try relaxing; a fly is trying to implant eggs in your nose. CLAP! Your attempt to use your super speed clap to eliminate the threat fails, and you ensure your wife once more you're not a loon—it's just a fly.
One or two flies in a day are no big deal. Four or five feel like an invasion. But they're so small and not really that big of a deal. So why look silly exhibiting so much energy for such a tiny threat? What gives?
It's not about the flies' size or their threat. It's not even about the flies. It's about their disruptions in the regular rhythms of life, like watching TV, eating dinner, or relaxing with a good book. The tiniest fraction of time they divert our attention away from what we want to devote our attention to feels like an impeachment of our autonomy. So what do we do?
We devote full-scale attention to the flies. "You want my attention? You've got it," I say under my breath to these unassuming life forms. Now all the attention I wanted to commit to reading, eating, and watching television is devoted to eliminating small creatures (and writing about them).
Like General Patton preparing for war, I studied my enemy. I researched (Googled) possibilities of eliminating public (house) enemies number one. I expected to resolve the issue within days. We poured boiling water down all the drains. We closed and sealed the sink drains. There were no visible changes in 24 hours.
Next, we purchased a blue light machine from Amazon.com to attract the flies at night. The blue light has a fan to suck in the flies to a sticky pad where they stick. I call it their hangout pad. The jury is still out on effectiveness, but it seems to help.
Then we consulted a professional—our home bug and pest exterminator. He offered a small orange container. The liquid inside smelled of apple cider vinegar. "I can't put my stamp of approval on this," he cautioned, "but you're more than welcome to try it." Try we did. Results varied.
Now we are a few weeks into this war on flies. (I just killed a fly with a swift CLAP—thought you should know.) And now I think I understand our country a little more and why we’re all so annoyed.
Some people (hint: you and I) don't want things to change much—if at all (to varying degrees). We don't want constant reminders—in music, movies, television, politics, supermarkets, or coffee shops—that this country is imperfect. We all love unimpeded consistency. We all crave acceptance for who we are. Nobody desires judgment for what or who we like or prefer or where we come from.
We all want to do, say, live, and take what we want without other people distracting our focus. We begin to view these "others" as distractions at best and annoyances at worst. So we "research" and think we understand how to deal with the distractions.
Some twist their logic of CRT and effectively try to ban it everywhere.
Some try to ban books from libraries (while ignoring the endless and more accessible content kids can access about these topics online).
Others, out of an abundance of compassion, believe we should allow biologically born males to compete against biologically born women and call it equal.
They label anything they don't like as woke-ism. They whine about Barbie movies and Mickey Mouse.
They try to make educators teach that American chattel slavery was a benefit to those enslaved.
And if any disrupters push back on any of this nonsense, they dare you to try it in a small town.
SWAT! WHACK! CLAP! The culture wars are making us look silly.
Our fellow citizens aren't annoying flies that need eradication or subjugation. They are people. They have a voice. But how are we using our voice and allowing them to use theirs? It's too easy to assume a condescending manner in our speech at people we deem as "others."
That's what the culture wars are all about: Let me show you how dumb your logic is and how superior my way of life is. In the words of Propaganda, "All ideas ain't equal, bro." Yet, there's still space for all of us.
We may not share the same worldviews, faith, or outlooks on life, but we share a common space—the Earth. So no matter if you're left-leaning, right-leaning, an extremist, or someone who thinks they can stay out of "politics" altogether (it's impossible, I'll explain why some other time), you are essential—like the little flies in our house.
The flies are a nuisance, but they're an important one. Those flies, too, are trying to tell us something. Perhaps we're unaware of trash in our house that needs removal. Maybe we need to clean our house more thoroughly. Instead of spending all our time trying to eliminate the flies, perhaps we need to find the root cause of their presence.
And now I’ve spent all my time writing about these flies when I could’ve been cleaning up this whole time.
(But real talk, if anyone has any tips on getting rid of these flies I’m all ears.)