TheRomanticWay

If you can’t find a metaphor in the amazing once-in-seventeen year visit of the cicadas, then you just need more work at your romantic living skills. Last week we arrived in Northern Illinois to be greeted by the nearly deafening whine of the millions cicadas (si – kay’ -da) from every grove of trees. Naturally, being the romantic that I am, I’m amazed by these creatures and I see a life lesson. If you’re not familiar with the 17-year life of a cicada, hold on to your seat and watch the following video!

Seventeen years is a mighty long time for a bug to live, but it’s only the first day of the cicada’s life and the last few weeks that are actually spent above ground. The rest of their lives are spent buried deep in the earth preparing for a spectacular production which steals the attention of all creation.

If the periodical cicada spends seventeen years underground, what’s the emergence above ground even for? One word. Almost the same reason that everything is prepared for.

Reproduction.

Yes, and there’s the metaphor I was looking for. Much of our lives are also spent preparing to reproduce ourselves, our knowledge, character, values, spirituality and beauty. I think of Moses spending a good chunk of his life, forty years, on the back side of the desert getting ready to reproduce a people in a new place for a new purpose.

The male cicada has noisemakers called a tymbals. Unlike crickets which just rub appendages together, what the male cicada has are actual membranes which can produce sounds in excess of 100 decibals! So the male cicada emerges from the ground with one thing on his mind.

He molts his crusty old skin and emerges with dashing red eyes.

Then he expands his tymbals,

Shrieks in unison with all of the other cicadas,

Finds a female cicada,

Has wild sex,

And dies.

My life isn’t nearly so stark but often as dramatic. I certainly notice the long and short periods of time where I’ve been off on the sidelines for some unknown reason. Eventually, the reason presents itself and I see that what I’ve experienced or learned needs to be reproduced. I’ve learned to be grateful for the cool, quiet environment of preparation to get ready for the spectacular reproductive experience.

Thanks, cicadas, for the show!

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