Like Trying to Give CPR to a Dragonfly

Everybody's worried about time
But I just keep that shit off my mind
     ~  Ziggy Marley ("Dragonfly")

I'm used to walking through a convention of dragonflies on my morning trek. I've mourned the inability of my cellphone camera to be able to capture a picture, as they dart about with such rapidity. But yesterday, I happened to get a picture up close . . . of a downed dragonfly, struggling for its life. How I spotted the tiny thing on the ground, I'm not sure, although its jeweled visage may have been the reason. I poked at her a bit, hoping to compel her to fly up into the air and rejoin her friends. She wasn't having it. In fact, she seemed to be stuck to the pavement, although it did not appear that she'd been flattened by a pickup truck or anything. I was finally able to unstick her from the pavement and relocate her to a sandy spot on the side of the road.

And then I wondered what else I could do. Any further poking or prodding I did just seemed to upset her, as she whisked her fragile wings in distress. I repositioned her close to some grass in hopes that she could use the blades to climb upon and then rise in glorious flight. And maybe that's what happened. On my subsequent laps around the park, I tried to find her again, but had no luck. Granted, the chances of spotting a dying dragonfly on the side of the road are slim, but I choose to think that she did, indeed, recover and fly away.

Dragonflies have been around for over 300 million years. I know, I know, it's impossible to wrap one's head around that kind of time. So let's just say that they've been around a very long time. There are about 5000 known species, and 182 of them live in my home state of New Jersey. And check this out: Sussex County, where I live in the summer, has more species of dragonfly than any other county in the United States at 145!!! I personally think they are all residing in my backyard. And lucky me . . . one dragonfly can eat from 30 to hundreds of mosquitos a day. (Dragonflies and bats are keeping me itch-free.) But if a dragonfly can't fly, it will starve, as they only eat prey that they catch while flying.

Which brings us back to my rescued dragonfly. Did she starve to death? Or did she recover? I know I've spent way too much time stressing over this. She was just one insect, albeit with compound eyes and the ability to fly 18 mph.

That worry aside, I welcome my morning walks for the escape from the troubles of the times. When I am among the egrets, the dragonflies, and the parakeets, and even the alligators and armadillos, I don't think about nuclear war or children in cages or climate change or hush money paid to porn stars. I don't think about the future (or whether there will be one). There's not much I can do about any of these matters that are destroying us. I feel helpless most of the time.

Like trying to give CPR to a dragonfly.