The summer night is filled with fireflies. I see them signaling constantly, knowing their time is limited and species at risk. There is something innately amazing about lifeforms that generate their own light. In comparison we must seem like large lumbering shadows, destined to live forever in the shade, bereft of luminosity.
As kids in Maryland my brothers and I would take off the glowing firefly abdomen and smear it on our foreheads in an attempt to mimic a third eye. In retrospect this seems somewhat strange and more than a little cruel, but it was clear even then that we were not destined for sainthood.
Bio-luminescence has always fascinated me. Fireflies and glow worms are the most visible here, but some fungi have the property as well. And let us not forget certain forms of ocean life, including the remarkable phytoplankton, making the sea itself shimmer with cold fire. That these organisms can radiate in the visible spectrum is a wonder of nature; our very own E.T. but one who is already home.
whoisfenton 