Le Weekly #57 – Artificial Light 💡

One quote, one word, one shoutout, one story, one neigh from Philosophical Horse and one question.

Mike Wright

Dec 09, 2024

Greetings everyone. Happy Monday!

Take a moment to reflect on each snippet. Comment your thoughts below.

Le Quote 🗣

“Time mends everything.” – Colin Wiseman.

Le Word 💬

time (noun) the indefinite continued progress of existence and events in the past, present, and future regarded as a whole.

Le Shoutout 🧣

📍 Limpopo

Last week, I was driving around the bush with one question on my mind:

“Where should I stop to have my morning coffee?”

Slowly, I arrived at a waterhole. In the middle of the waterhole were five birds.

Two African Spoonbills, one Yellow-Billed Stork, one Grey Heron, and one Egyptian Goose.

“Hmm,” I said to myself.

Usually, these birds wouldn’t stand together, so, due to the unusual behaviour, I stopped the car. Coffee time.

After watching the birds for a few seconds, I casually looked to the right of the dam. There, casually looking straight back at me, sat nine lions.

Shoutout to the five birds for stopping me.

Le Story ✍️

Guest Post by El Moth

📍 Limpopo

I am a moth, you see. I fly around, wild and free.

The humans, though, they do this thing at night. They invite me inside and then yell out in fright!

“Gah!” they shout. “Please stop flying about! You’re allowed in here, but you have to get out.”

“But,” I begin. “I’m in love with your lamp. It warms my heart and it dries all my damp!”

With tears in my eyes, I look up at my love. So light and so bright and so warm like a glove. My eyes go all hazy. I struggle to fly! The humans think I’m crazy! One starts to cry!

“I’m going to bed!” one says.

“It’s so scary!” another shouts.

I know they’re afraid, but no need for insults.

*click*

The light turns off, and

*bang*

the windows close.

Immediately, in the dark, I sit and regain my pose!

I wish they could see me. They think I’m still flying.

But no, sadly not, I’m in the kitchen, crying.

As the humans sleep gently, they continue their lives, while I’m stuck inside with seven hours to survive.

I look around, looking for help, and lock eyes with a beetle. Then, I see another moth and an ant, also locked inside by the people.

We say greetings and hello and start to plan our attack. They say nothing is impossible if you stick with your pack.

The humans, still sleeping, think everything is fine. But what they don’t know is that the house is now mine!

“Let’s go,” I say to the ant and the beetle. “Let’s go,” they reply, moving towards the people.

But wait, what’s that? Why is it light outside? Have we been so busy planning our attack that the morning arrived?

The humans wake up. One walks to the kitchen.

“Oh shame, the moth from last night is still here. Sorry for locking you in!!!!”

The human opens the window wide and helps us outside. We stand there, confused, unsure whether to cry.

“What’s the lesson here okes?” I ask the moth, ant and beetle.

“I’m not sure about you folks, but we need to stay away from these people!”

We all nod in agreement, shaking hands with delight.

Our plan going forward was simple: Avoid human artificial light.

A plan is all good and well, but action is required. We’ll need to work together until dawn has transpired.

Narrator: So, 8 hours later, the insects sat together in a small circle and chatted happily. By sticking together and keeping each other from going towards the artificial light, they successfully completed their simple yet important existential strategy.