I jog early
in the morning and take a leisurely walk early evenings; the weather in
Cleveland Ohio has been lovely, warm with occasional showers. But that lovely
warm slightly wet weather also means its mosquito season.
The female
mosquito is vicious, she needs blood, preferably human blood, to lay her eggs. And on one of my daily walks I was bitten several times on my leg even though I
was wearing leggings! The swelling, and the itching, and the pain, caused me to
buy several soothing creams and insect replant.
I was
interested in understanding why some people were more prone to mosquito bites,
especially when I found that my daughter had not fallen victim to the tiny
skinny brutal bloodsucker. I did a quick search and found that mosquitos prefer
attacking people with type O blood (which is my blood type), and people with
high levels of cholesterol, and those who produce high levels of uric acid (two
things I hope I don’t have).
I thought
the information was interesting and wanted to share it on Twitter, but felt
awkward about writing such trivial facts when every tweet I read today was
about how horrific the civil uprising in Sudan is, and how many innocent lives
were claimed, women were raped, and injuries inflicted. Then there was the
swarm of support for the latest Saudi women seeking asylum, being held against
their will, and trying to escape, which has become a monthly recurrence on
twitter. The disturbing news about some refugees kept in cages in the United
States. And then there was the shocking news of the Kuwaiti government
poisoning stray dogs!
The above
isn’t a description of an overly dramatic day on twitter. Twitter is like this
every single day. And it’s gotten to a point where if you’re not showing some
kind of support for some kind of awful thing that’s happening in the world then
you’re a heartless asshole!
I care. I
genuinely care. I want the Sudanese people to overcome their unjust government.
I want Saudi women seeking asylum from their violent patriarchal country to
gain asylum in Canada. I don’t want refugees to be kept in cages in the U.S. And
I most definitely hate that the shitty Kuwaiti government is poisoning dogs.
But I get on
twitter every morning and all I see is pain and suffering, and I am tired. I
have Compassion Fatigue, because I feel so deeply even when I don’t retweet, or
post an angry response, or change my profile picture to the color a cause is
asking its supporters to change it to. I know that cruelty and suffering will
never end. As long as there will be twitter, the bad news of our lack of
humanity will prevail. But sometimes I just want to say that I got bitten by a
mosquito, and it’s fascinating to me that mosquitos target people with type O
blood.
