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Thursday, June 08, 2006
10:50 AM

The Supreme Cockcroach

When I lived in my grandmother's place way back when I was young, we would usually spend the summer afternoons cleaning the insect-infested areas in our house. We would look at the dark and smelly corners of our cabinets, under the beds, beneath the plumbing systems of our kitchen sinks, and even on the hot grills of a refrigerator’s behind. The most common insect I’d usually find is the all-powerful cockroach, the true rulers of the household.

Ever since I was young, I’ve always been fascinated about these little creatures that scurry along the floors at night, looking for means to survive. My fascinations have usually earned me eyebrow-raising episodes with my friends and relatives, who just thought that these darned things are icky and disgusting. I didn’t think so. In fact, I’d go as far as chasing a single cockroach all around the house with a stick, trying to get it to lay flat on its back, and watching the way it wiggles its body parts in a desperate attempt to get its body right-side-up again. Call me weird if you want, but I think it’s cute.

Even when I grew up in age and stature, I never really outgrew my respect for these little critters. Often, I try to stop my friends from killing any cockroaches they corner; they let the helpless thing go and persecute me instead. I find it amusing whenever my friends talk big in front of the ladies and yet jump and scream when they see a cockroach. If I was one, I’d probably wonder why they’d be so afraid; they’re practically more than a hundred times bigger than me!

Whenever I hear that the human being is the most successful species on earth, I usually roll back my eyes in disgust. I think of the terrible injustice done to the cockroaches, for I think that it is they who are the most successful species on earth. If one would ask me, I’d prefer to be a cockroach more than a human being.

Cockroaches and humans have a lot of things in common. Though they have different organs and body parts, both of them are alive and both of them breathe. Both have the instinct to live life and propagate their genes until the day they die. Both need nourishment, air to breathe and a place to rest. Both only want what’s best for their entire race, or so we think.

With most humans, cockroaches would probably be one of the most annoying insects ever, together with the mosquitoes and the flies. If one would care about looking into their eyes and stepping into their shoes (metaphorically, of course), one might say that, for the cockroach race, human beings are the foulest and most disgusting species that ever walked the face of the earth.

Cockroaches have been around for millions of years; humans have only been around for a thousand or so. Naked cockroaches have been seen all around the world in the most extreme weather conditions and climates; naked humans wouldn’t last a day in the snow. Cockroaches take food from sources that are already considered to be rotting and obtainable; humans have to take lives in order to survive. Cockroaches do not kill their own kind just to get food. Cockroaches do not mark territories and consider a patch of land, which is supposed to be for all of the Almighty’s creation, as their own. Cockroaches do not get all the food and hide it from all the other cockroaches. Cockroaches do not take revenge on other cockroaches when their den is trampled upon.

In fact, cockroaches worship the Almighty better than humans do. Humans sing songs of praise with advanced vocal communication systems and yet fail to do what they were created to do: to take care of the planet. Cockroaches honor their creator by setting out to do the task they ought to do, by making good use of the refuse of other organisms.

Human beings brag that they have so much intelligence and wisdom, and yet they use it to lie, to cheat, to steal, and to swindle from other organisms. Humans say that they have the gift of free will and yet they abuse it by destroying the free will of other humans. Humans say that they have the power of technology, but instead of using technology to create, they seem to be more proficient at using technology to destroy. Humans honor the Almighty for the gift of life, and yet they destroy that gift to the fullest extent of their abilities. In fact, humans throw away that gift by committing suicide; you’ve probably never heard of a cockroach committing suicide and throwing away the life that God has given. That, for a cockroach, would probably be laughable.

Cockroaches are better survivors than humans. Cockroaches do not need love and care to survive. Cockroaches are born with all the skills and instincts they need to live without anybody teaching them. Cockroaches have no need for money, credit cards, cellphones, cars and other vanity objects. Cockroaches do not need to pollute their natural beauty with senseless beauty products that shorten their lives and pollute the oceans.

But then again, I guess humans have one advantage over the cockroaches. It is said that cockroaches can survive for only a month without its head. It’s a pathetic fact, because most humans like me have lived all our lives without our heads.

So what is my point? It’s simple. When you feel that you’re the Almighty’s greatest gift to the world, when you think that you’re a step higher than everything else, stop to think that the insect scurrying about in your kitchen has been around for millions of years and he has been through more trials than you’ll ever be. When you feel that you’re the strongest person that is, that was, and that will ever be, try to crawl bare-bellied in the snow for a few hours without your guts getting frozen over.

We should remember that, if you think of it, the planet is simply a speck of dust in the Almighty’s great universe. Humans and cockroaches are smaller than dust; we are close to nothing. The cockroaches have spent millions of years in trying to be the best specks of dust they can possibly be. How about you, when will you start? Will you start at all? Do you even know why you were created by the Almighty?

My advice to everyone is: every time we kill a cockroach, we must enjoy the moment. We should breathe its supremacy, and take it as our own. It won’t last long. When we are buried six feet under the ground, a cockroach will come to lay eggs and feed upon our rotting corpses. It will only take the nutrients, for it has no need for our pathetic so-called “supremacy”.

With all that said, let us follow the example of the supreme cockroach. Let us do the best we can as human beings, and live life in the service of the world and our loved ones. And when we see these life forms scurrying about in our darkest of spaces, let us silently thank it for being there to teach us one of life’s most important lessons.

ALL BY MYSELF