Arthur was born last June and was lucky to survive, given that mantis mothers and their offspring have a penchant for eating their siblings. Once hatched, the larvae are able to hunt, and all of them will cannibalize each other, sometimes even attacking their siblings. Luckily, enough of the 200 born survived to allow the species to thrive. Arthur's lifespan is short, about six to eight months, maybe less if he becomes prey to a female. Males often lose their heads in excitement. Female mantises always decapitate the male when mating. To keep him interested, they may bite off his neck and cut the nerves that control the male's lower nervous system and limit reproductive behavior.
Luckily, when we met, Arthur was still alive. He was in a flower pot on the porch, indistinguishable from the leaves he was eating. He turned his head and I saw that he was alive. The look in his eyes was breathtaking. As if to confirm that he had my attention, he quickly turned his head 180 degrees and looked straight at me again (praying mantises can do that).
Hoping he wouldn't leave, I quickly looked it up on the internet and found out that Arthur is a middle-aged male who probably hasn't mated yet. His big eyes and swiveling head give him excellent eyesight for hunting. Praying mantises are surprisingly communicative, especially with humans. Arthur is like that too. He listened every time I spoke, but when I raised my voice he jerked his head away. After a while, he nodded slightly every time he heard me. Then for a few seconds he was eating leaves or doing something. Praying mantises prefer bees and butterflies.
I was hooked, and our relationship lasted a full week. Before I went to bed and first thing in the morning, I checked to see if he was still on the porch. Finally, he climbed out of the flowerpot and landed on the railing. One afternoon toward the end of the week, I glanced away, looked again, and he was gone.
I think of Arthur often; it's been exactly a year now, and his picture (above) is in the middle of my desk.
It seems silly to get sentimental about insects, but Aristotle also studied shellfish and many other living things. Though he was known as a philosopher, he was also a dedicated naturalist. He encouraged his students not to shy away from studying animals that may not seem appealing, because there is something wonderful about them – not least the fact that they are all trying to stay alive.
We tend to assume that being human is something special and important, which leads us to question our own nature, rather than considering what it means to be an elephant, a pig, a bird, or a praying mantis. Aristotle noted that animals perceive, desire, and act to satisfy their own needs, and he sought a unified explanation of this for all living things, including humans.
The first question should not be, “Who am I?” but “Who are you?” Our differences are not division, but the basis of our unity. We share this planet with billions of other sentient creatures, each with their own way of being. I am unique. So is Arthur. So are you. Kindness has been called “attentiveness to the mystery of the other.” It is a way of drawing close to the other, recognizing their complexity and uniqueness, and being mindful of generalizations.
All life, from molecules in cells to individuals in communities, depends on mutual influence and cooperation. So does inanimate matter. Plants and trees warn each other of danger, dusk quiets birds, and insects can become friends. Geneticists say we inherit Neanderthal DNA. Astrophysicists suggest we carry the essence of the stars within us.
There is no word in English to express this sense of being connected to something bigger than oneself. In Japanese, one translation of “jibun” (self), “self,” can be interpreted as “one's share in a shared living space,” reflecting a more interdependent view of the self common to Japanese culture. South Africans have an Ubuntu that can be summed up as “I am because we are.”
We are part of an unbroken continuum. You don't have to go very far to be amazed. Our own neural networks are incredible. A 3D reconstruction of one cubic millimeter of a woman's brain would reveal an estimated 150 million synapses.
Mary Oliver writes:
“The farthest star and the mud beneath our feet are family, and it is neither polite nor meaningful to honor one or a few and then call it a day. A leaf holds a song. A stone is the face of perseverance. The pine tree, the panther, the Platte River, and ourselves are all in peril. Or together we move toward a sustainable world. Our dignity and opportunity are one. We are each other's destiny.”
Arthur nodded and I could stop talking now.
Notes and reading
Praying mantises are a topic of controversy. Farmers prize them because they help control crop-damaging insect populations and reduce the need for chemical pesticides. Gardeners call them “voracious and fearsome predators.” — “Should I Let Praying Mantises In My Garden?” University of New Hampshire Extension, October 2021.
Aristotle – The Parts of Animals. Book 1, Part 5 (645a.15). Online.
Interdependence of Living and Nonliving Things in the Natural World – See “The Ingredients of the Universe: How the Universe Forms the Elements” in Astronomy, updated May 18, 2023, and “Ancient DNA and Neanderthals” in the Smithsonian Museum of Human Origins, published February 20, 2024.
Sentience extends beyond humans, as discussed in Martha Nussbaum's Justice for Animals: Our Collective Responsibility (2024). Traditions such as Hinduism, Taoism, and Animism accept the idea that all matter is conscious. The convergence of general relativity and quantum physics in science connects the macroscopic and microscopic worlds. As philosophers debate functionalism, panpsychism, and “new materialism,” David Bentley Hart, a scholar of philosophy, religion, and culture, challenges these views, arguing that consciousness transcends both material and functional explanations. (“The Divine Experience,” 2013; “Everything is Filled with Gods,” 2024; “The Fourth Day,” pp. 261-319).
The opposite of violence is not the absence of violence but kindness, “attention to the mystery of the other,” Ukrainian theologian Alexander Philonenko is quoted in “Dark Theology as an Approach to the Reconstruction of the Church” by Andrey Shishkov of the Faculty of Theology and Religious Studies, University of Tartu (Estonia), online at MDPI (a publisher of open access scientific journals).
“For the Japanese, there is only one translation of 'self'” – Deborah L. Cabaniss, “Masks and Selves: Reflections on Interconnectedness,” Psychology Today, December 2020. – Desmond Tutu discusses Ubuntu in the context of post-apartheid South Africa and the Truth and Reconciliation Commission – No Future Without Forgiveness (1999).
“150 million synapses…” – 57,000 cells – in one cubic millimeter of the brain. Illustration with large color photographs. “Piece of Mind”, Wired, September/October 2024 issue.
Mary Oliver – Upstream: Selected Essays (2016).
Cosmic Connection: Poetry in an Age of Disenchantment – Charles Taylor (2024). An eternal yearning for cosmic connection; a challenge to belief in a cosmic order, but “a sense of a reality higher and deeper than the everyday world.”
About 2 + 2 = 5: https://williamgreen.substack.com/about – Revised
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