Lesson from the bees

During my early morning exercise the other day, a small bee fell into the pool. There must be a hive nearby, most probably in a tree in the vacant lot next door, for I often find bees sharing the pool with me. As always I scooped up the bee and put it on dry land on the pool’s ledge. It righted itself, spread out little wings to, I guess, dry them out.

A few minutes later another bee dropped into the pool, so again I transferred it to dry land. By this time, the first bee was inching its way around. The second bee, however, was having a difficult time righting itself, so I helped it along and got it off its back.

One more turn around the pool (I do interval walking in the water, it’s kinder on my knees), I came to check on the bees’ progress. The first bee had walked about two feet – which must seem like two kilometers to a guy that’s about a centimeter in size – and then, lo and behold! it launched, flew over the water then over the wall, back I suppose to its hive and its colony.

The other bee though wasn’t doing too well. It was on its side, little legs flailing helplessly. I again gave it a nudge to get it upright, but it immediately fell back on its side, then on its back. A couple more attempts and I concluded there must be something anatomically wrong with this bee. I didn’t have my glasses and I didn’t want to get too close to inspect it, since it could probably still sting. I decided to leave it as it was – on its side, unable to get upright, unable to dry its wings and fly off. Sadly, this bee would not be able to get back to its hive, rejoin the other bees and serve its queen.

By the way, subsequent research pointed out my mistake – these weren’t bees, they’re probably yellow jacket wasps – and they don’t make honey.

Saving one and not the other – such is life. Not everything is under our control; actually, when you think about it, very little is. We think we know how to fix things, we may have all the good intentions but we can’t right every wrong, fight another creature’s battle (even if it’s a little wasp) and not every situation has a satisfactory or happy ending.

This realization led me to look up the Serenity Prayer, with the oft-quoted line: “God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and wisdom to know the difference.”

The other part of the prayer – attributed to Reinhold Niebuhr – bears repeating: “Living one day at a time; enjoying one moment at a time; accepting hardships as the pathway to peace; taking, as He did, this sinful world as it is, not as I would have it; trusting that he will make all things right if I surrender to His will; that I may be reasonably happy in this life and supremely happy with Him forever in the next. Amen.”

In this turbulent world of ours, with things way beyond our control that nevertheless are affecting and upending practically every aspect of our lives – madmen waging senseless wars, evil puppetmasters egging the madmen on to prolong the fighting and the destruction, short-sighted leaders, corrupt lawmakers with their rapacious cohorts – what are we to do?

I think Filipinos are resilient because we are too often tested – extremely so. From natural and – worse – man-made disasters to the sorry lack of basic services like public transport and affordable health care, the Filipino is forced by circumstance to be resilient and creative – we survive on sariling sikap. We cope as best we can, get by as best we can, help others as much as we can – and accept the things we cannot change.