Just hanging about

I once asked my father if bugs go to heaven when they die.

He said, "Certainly not."

Then what, I asked, are praying mantises praying for?

"They're praying that their fathers don't come and squash them for asking stupid questions."

(I'm not really sure my father and I had this conversation. I may in fact have just made it up. It's so hard for me to tell these days.)

So, what do praying mantises lift up in prayer?

1. Dear Creator, thank you for sticky feet.

2. God, if you can end all the pain and suffering in this world with the snap of your fingers, prove it on that bird that just so happens to be looking my way.

3. Please don't make me come back as a moth.

4. My dear Lord, why did you create the world upside down, or maybe I'M upside down, or maybe everything's right-side up and I only perceive it as being opposite of what it TRULY is, like some other dimension or parallel universe in which I am the Supreme King of All Lands and Seas, and it's only here that I'm just a dang bug. Oh, never mind.

5. I just wanted to be a dancer.


There's way more interesting things to see at  A Rural Journal.