newyorkette

(image: carolita johnson, varmint, God.)

The best line in the whole magazine, and the most pertinent for me this week came from Jonathan Rosen’s critical piece, “Missing Link,” about the renewed interest in the story of Alfred Russel Wallace, Darwin’s less lucky, less wiley (and, notably, less unwilling to endure the slings and arrows of a public unwilling to believe their uncle was a monkey) contemporary:

“(...)when a later British biologist, J. B. S. Haldane, was pressed by a clergyman on the nature of God, he reportedly said, “He has an inordinate fondness for beetles.’”

Alfred Russel Wallace was a much more interesting character than Darwin, bolder, poorer—a self-made man, all the things we like our heros to be. Maybe he’s just the thing the evolutionists need, now that Darwin’s integrity has been called to question. Me, personally, I think there is strong evidence to to support the belief in an annoying prankster God, the more I see of the world.

For example, the reason the above quote was so pertinent is because I recently had the opportunity to admire the evolutionary accomplishment of New York’s most common beetle: the German cockroach. One made a spectacular entrance into my life yesterday, when I opened the hall closet door and noticed a strangely slow-falling, unidentified small object trace a straight, blurry brownish line in the air from the top of the door to the floor. I bent over to see what had fallen, and lo and hehold, it was one of God’s favorite creatures. Just think: that closet door was its proportional equivalent of one of the Twin Towers, and that cockroach simply landed gently. Never mind what kind of guts it must have taken for it to decide to make that kind of a jump. Cockroaches are like mini-Supermen.

But perhaps they also have hubris. I believe that cockroach was congratulating itself, patting itself on the back, feeling all fired up with adrenaline, thinking, “Yeehaaaa! That was invigorating!” Perhaps it was even feeling rather good, or even a little too smug, about how physically superior, proportionally, it was than myself. Because it remained there for a second too long before taking the few steps that got my own adrenaline flowing. I had a narrow box in my hand that contained a heavy ballast for my bathroom light fixture, and instinctively brought it down with a big CLACK on this amazing little daredevil.

Posted Saturday, February 10th, 2007 at 3:53 pm under TNY weekend reader. Feel free to trackback from your own site. All images on newyorkette.com are the intellectual property of Carolita Johnson, and you must ask (and receive) express permission to use them or reproduce them in any way whatsoever.