Consider the lowly gnat. One of our most humble and irritating members of the Sciaroidea family of insects. It is a peculiar little beast which dies 7 to 10 days after it matures. One wonders why they make the effort. Gnats must work through three stages of development before they are able to vote. The egg stage is the gnat’s first inkling of life (tiny specks of life but not yet mature life). If you encounter a gnat swarm, note that this is their mating ritual. Do not intrude. The eggs hatch into larvae which are worm-like, leg-less vegetarians. The larvae spin a silken cocoon around themselves (like a zipper less sleeping bag). The cocoon offers protection but no amenities. After a suitable time, the mature gnat emerges from the cocoon and goes looking for trouble. (I will speak of the eyelash mite in a later post.)
Curiously, the Jain monks in India reveres all life to the extreme…even the life of a gnat. They are so radically exacting that they wear face masks to prevent accidentally breathing in small insects. They also carry soft brooms to sweep their paths of any creatures to avoid stepping on them.
The Jainists, however obsessive/compulsive you might think, have a message for us. Even the least of creatures are worthy of life in any of its stages.