All creatures great and small
If roaches could make music...What is your first instinct when you see a huge, fat cockroach (the type that can fly) crawling under your nose?
A. Grab the first thing handy (rolled up newspaper, hanger, ping pong bat) to swat at it, wipe up the mess with tissue paper, mop the area and spray with Ridsect.
B. Cockroach? What cock? What roach?
C. Lovingly scoop the roach up with your bare hands and release it outside your apartment/house/room hoping it dosen't have any homing sixth sense to tailgate back to you.
All my life, I've thought that A was the only correct thing to do when it comes to roaches. Seen my mum do A, got people to do it for me (my dad, my bro, housemates- notably PL =D), because I'm a scaredy-cat and can't bear the thought of hitting a roach and especially not the squemish task of wiping the dead, smashed roach off the floor. *shudder*
I think I had a bad experience as a kid where a huge flying roach landed on my calve and the creepy crawling sensation was enough to forever instill in me a fear of roaches. Joe's Apartment, a 1996 movie about a guy who stayed in a roach-infested apartment and in the end turned into a roach himself ranks as one of the most horrifyingly memorable movies I've watched. Ever.
...I could learn to like 'em?! Ughh..I think not!!Until recently, I always thought A was the only thing to do when faced with a roach. Until living with some people who have the belief that cockroaches are also creatures of the earth and deserve to live their life. "They're not dirty creatures, they're just different from us," I was told. Initially, I was speechless with disbelieve when I saw them scoop up roaches and carelessly flick them away, on to the balcony, into a trash can, live and kicking. In the end, I resigned to bariccading the crack under the door to my room with a thick rug and prayed and hoped one would not find its way into my room.
Inadvertently, one fine, warm night, my weak defences failed and a big fat roach invaded the private sanctuary of my room. I stared at the ugly thing for five whole seconds, frozen into inaction. "A, B or C?"...
Snapping into motion, I automatically did what I had been programmed to think was the "correct" thing to do, for lack of someone else to do it for me. I steeled myself -for better or for worst- summoned all my will power to roll up a copy of The Star and swatted. SLAP! *squish squish* I even wiped the whole mess off my bedroom floor with as thick a wad of tissues I could get so that I wouldn't have to feel the goo-ey texture ("Think of all the trees you're killing!!", I remember someone telling me) and all the while holding my breath, so that I wouldn't have to smell that distinct cockroach "scent". Thinking back, I'm so proud of myself for overcoming a long-time fear, if only for that emergency moment. Hee hee. =D
I guess, fear is something you can overcome in moments of desperation and sometimes the only person you can depend on is yourself?
Ironically, a song I learnt when I was a kid is ringing (guiltily?) in my head. *grin*
All things bright and beautiful,
All creatures great and small,
All things wise and wonderful,
The Lord God made them all.
I'd like to think that killing roaches is part of the natural selection meant by God to keep a balance in the ecosystem. To each their own in dealing with pests (human or non-human), I say.
posted by N.J.A.P.F. @ 2:04 PM
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