A picture is worth too many of my words

After stealing *ahem* borrowing a camera, I have finally been able to visually document Habakkuk in his ever-growing state of being. Enjoy!

Above and below: Two weeks old.

You can sort of see the white stripes developing on his back. They are sort of blurred into one white line...



Above: Three weeks old. (Taken today)
The white stripes have become more distinct Vs running down his back! He's also about to molt (again). You can't see it very well, but his head (on the left) looks like it's going to pop off at any minute. Don't worry, it won't, but the outside layer of his body will!

An Ode to (the somewhat famous) Habakkuk.

Living the life of an optimist/idealist, is like living with one's head in the clouds. Always thinking of what could/should be, and entertaining endless hope of the world as a better place. We are often misunderstood by pessimists and realists, and are thought to be naive, innocent, and ridiculously upbeat. Point well taken. But there is something to be said for keeping one's head in the clouds, as it were. Optimists are not always cheerful or happy, and these are certainly not pre-existing requirements.

I am one of these such people. Optimistic. Idealistic. I believe in the good will of humankind and have an unfaltering hope for the world. And I am very cheerful most all of the time, which I have a feeling tweaks the auras of my realist counterparts. But this has been one of those weeks that the weight of the world has been increasingly present on my shoulders. This is probably caused by several of many different factors including: the sunday New York Times, my classes, exposure to many different worldviews, and my neverending quest to figure out how my experience in Africa affects the rest of my life in American society.

It doesn't take long for one living on this planet to know that things are MESSED UP. People suck sometimes, actually, most of the time. And that's that. You can't look at a newspaper without seeing words like BLOOD, VIOLENCE, DEATH, DISPUTE, FIGHT, etc. People take advantage of other people, they hurt other people, they oppress, victimize, and are just plain mean. Our world is riddled with injustice. One of my classes is called Citizens, Consumers, and Corporations. It is basically a should, could, would discussion about corporations and how they operate. Questions that have been raised run somewhere along the line of: Should corporations be ethically responsible? What are they allowed to have under their umbrella of ownership? Where should the line be drawn when it comes to harming the earth and people, and making a profit? Corporations do sucky things. They are mean and don't have a conscience. And in a capitalistic society, it's hard to agree on when money isn't as important as the negative consequences of someone's actions. And that's where there are problems. On a different note, every week in the sunday Times, there's some headline about violence and death in Pakistan. Afghanistan. Iraq. There's always something about someone not being treated fairly. Oppression. Suffering. Is there ever an end?

It has become very apparent to me, how desensitized we have become. How is it that we can read all of the suffering, watch it on tv, drive by it in our cities, and not want to cry out in anguish about how horrible the world is? Without being driven to action? Isn't that what the message, of our society is? That we can just skim over things like that and push them under the rug because a) someone else will take care of it, b) it's just the way it is and there's nothing we can REALLY do about it, or c) why worry about the rest of the world's problems when you have enough of your own? And it is true, that we can't take the problems of the world on our shoulders and try to fix them all. But I think that there's an issue when we can read about kid's dieing because they don't have enough water, and it doesn't make us sick to our stomachs.

There is a reason that I picked the name Habakkuk for my caterpillar (see previous post). Habakkuk is the name of a minor prophet in the Bible. He actually sounds like he was a pretty stellar guy and is definitely on my coffee list. His book is found between Nahum and Zephaniah, and is a mere three pages long. But if we're talking quality over quantity, this guy has it made. It opens with Habakkuk's complaint, short, sweet and to the point. He's questioning God saying, "Dude, where's the justice? I spend my whole life crying out to You to come save the world and do something about the violence and there's no response! Where the heck are you, God?!" (This is the Amy Paraphrase, but I personally don't think it's too far from what he's getting at...). So anyway, Habakkuk's pretty angry. He sees all this violence and wickedness, and he knows that God is God and He's just and all-powerful, and it just doesn't click. God is good, right? Violence and wickedness aren't, right? So God, what's the deal? But then God's response isn't all flowers and rainbows...He actually says, "So about that, I'm actually going to raise up Israel's worst enemy, and THEN you'll see what injustice is!" Talk about a discomforting response. Where is the love? It wouldn't do much for my mood, and it didn't for Habakkuk's. He comes back with a second complaint, and this one is riddled with emotion and powerful words--but still echoing the themes of his first. Here is this imperfect human guy, approaching the all-powerful God, and basically saying that the world that He created sucks. Habakkuk's got some guts. But the really cool thing is that God doesn't get angry. He doesn't smite the pest of a human that Habakkuk has become by raising all these complaints. In fact, God comes back with a lengthy speech about how the oppressors will be oppressed, plunderers will be plundered, and justice will be had when the time is right. In the end He sort of says, "I hear you, this place sucks, but it will be fixed when it's time for it to be fixed. Don't worry about it. I'm God, and I'm not going to leave you stranded." In the end, Habakkuk is slightly less angry, in fact he spends the last chapter praising God. The conclusion is as follows:

"Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will be joyful in God my Savior."

Everything sucks, but God is still God. This being the case, there is still something to be said for crying out against injustice. God cares, and so should we. God spends half the bible speaking out against injustice and oppression, and that's what we should be doing. I, for one, need to be more like Habakkuk, and speak up, lest someone take my silence to be apathy.

There may not be easy solutions to all the crap that happens in this world, but there won't be any solution until people start crying out to God and the world against injustice. I am still an optimist and idealist, and I probably always will be. I have hope for this world. Never fear, you realists out there, I am well aware of how hard it is to really, REALLY make a difference in this world. But that will never deter me from trying. Never.

And thus begins the life of Habakkuk

It is my pleasure to announce the newest addition to my household: Habakkuk, the caterpillar. Yes, indeed I did just say that a caterpillar has taken up residence in my house.

Why? would be a very good question at this point. And the answer is, for the pure joy of watching this life form develop and morph through the course of it's life cycle. I acquired him from the entomology lab at school, after a lab session where we had the opportunity to observe several stages of the life cycle of this particular species (egg all the way to moth). I am hoping to make some what of a photo journal of Habakkuk's life, which will only extend for 2 and a half months or so. But at this point he is a little too small to get an adequate picture for your viewing. So we'll just have to deal with words until a clear picture can be had.

Habakkuk is a Tobacco Hornworm, named for two very good reasons. He eats tobacco and has a horn on his back. People are really creative at naming things, I know. The species is Manduca Sexta, if you want to look it up. Here is a simple break down of Manduca's life cycle:

Eggs hatch out itty bitty caterpillars. We're talking no more than a few millimeters in width and maybe half a centimeter in length. The caterpillar, which is the larva of the adult moth, will remain as such for about a month and a half before it pupates. During this stage, it will molt (shed it's skin) about 4 times, causing 5 instars total (the final instar being about 4 inches long and a centimeter or more in diameter). An instar is basically a way of saying how many stages the larva goes through before becoming an adult insect. These five instars have one job only: to EAT. And eat they do. Constantly. Eat and poop. But hey, if you were growing at the rate that they do, you would too. We're talking increasing your body mass by 400 times in less than two months. That takes a lot of energy. What's crazy about it is that caterpillars are born with as many cells as they're ever going to have. That means that instead of having cells divide to make more body mass, their cells just get bigger and BIGGER. After the caterpillar reaches the fifth instar, it will make a little nest and pupate (turn into a cocoon). It takes about 2 weeks to turn caterpillar to moth, and when it does, the moth will be about 4 inches in wingspan, and GORGEOUS.

When I got Habakkuk on Thursday, he was pretty freshly out of the egg. Measuring in at less than a centimeter in length, he looked like a chunk of green angel hair pasta. Since then (~6 days ago), he has molted once, and grown significantly. He's pushing 2cms long, and definitely eats at least twice his body weight every day. These caterpillars are quite the brilliant shade of green, and as they grow, they get white stripes that look like a line of Vs down their backs. When Habakkuk hatched, he was green and pretty transparent. Now, his stripes are starting to form and he's more of an opaque green.

Call me a dork, but I get really excited to watch him every day. It's pretty amazing how this green stringy thing is alive and growing. For something that doesn't really have much of a brain, he knows what his purpose is: to eat and grow and turn into something beautiful. I can't wait to upload pictures because, this creature is UNBELIEVABLE. God was pretty darned creative when He put this world together.

Stay tuned for updates on Habakkuk's status!