What would you do for love?
How do you show your devotion?
I know someone with an ex. This is not surprising. Most people are an ex to someone somewhere sometime. Ex student. Ex employee Ex lover. Ex pert. Ex ample.
All of these could also be called ‘former’ excepting the pert and the ample.
Sometimes, ‘ex’ is not a definitive, final state. Some people when they go in this ‘ex’ state, it is a temporary affair. When this happens the living together stops but the fighting for the relationship continues, albeit at a more safe distance.
I know a person in such a predicament. He frequently is helping out his ex. Recently, one of her colonies of bees boosted from the hive. The queen took off and the rest followed.
They were swarming around a tree branch when they were discovered missing. My buddy, let’s call him Bill, was called upon to deal with this swarm of angry bees and get the queen back into the hive.
Easy enough right? What could possibly go wrong?
Well, Bill, decided to climb a ladder with a hand saw and cut off the branch that the bees were swarming around. This he did without too much trouble. Cutting the branch was relatively easy.
And uneventful
Uneventful that is until the end.
Once his saw cut through, the limb of the tree became more acquainted with gravity. This was in the parlance of today, highly problematic.
Bill had cut almost through the bee bundled branch when gravity caused it to break and swing as though on a hinge.
The branch swung.
And the swarm?
The swarm hit Bill square in the face.
Bill did what anyone would do at this time.
He screamed.
He screamed and he cried.
Apparently Bill produced sound at an octave he had never known before. Dogs for miles away started panicking.
I saw Bill a couple of days after the event. He looked horrible, like he had been taken prisoner by Russians and taught about…
About…
About angry bees!
Getting punched in the face or pistol whipped would be bad.
But having your face attacked by twenty thousand swarming angry bees? That reads like a horror film script.
Bill (now and forever to be known as ‘bee faced man’ told me that even being stung in the face hundreds of times by a swarm of angry bees has its good parts.
“When she questions my devotion, I tell her that I gut stung in the face hundreds of times for you”
It’s hard to fight that logic.
It’s like the old saying goes: I would do anything for love, but I won’t do that.
This pasted a smile on my face for a good 6o seconds. Thanks 😊
Devotion. I would like to check out the origin of that word.
In general, we do things we otherwise wouldn't do, like get stung. But did he do that out of devotion? Did he stick his hand in a group of angry bees. No, he risked injury that could possibly happen with a poorly executed plan which involved scaring the bees. Retrieving the bees was an act of devotion. Poorly executing that plan...the word is your choice.
For the record, get your own bees back. I don't think devotion means sacrifice. I think it is closer to tolerance. At least it is for me. I tolerate and enjoy hearing the same stories from people I love. It is a form of devotion. I am devoted to this blog. But, I haven't sacrificed anything overly valuable to it. I have considered the time invested. But it is an investment, I have decided. I am getting something out of it. Most importantly, I am getting something I don't get anywhere else.
I think that is a key component of devotion. We do things we wouldn't do typically, and the reason we do is because of whom or what we are doing it for.
My devotion to this blog started out as devotion to someone special in my daughter's, and therefore my, life. It has grown into an act of devotion to myself.