Thinking Outside the Cereal Box

“Since Auschwitz we know what man is capable of and since Hiroshima we know what is at stake.”

            -Viktor Frankl

For those of you not from Hawaii we have several versions of cockroaches of all different sizes and shapes. On of my favorites is the B-52 cockroach with which I’ve had several encounters throughout my 8 year blissful stay in Kailua, Oahu.  My first encounter was a warm sunny day as I dried off from my long day at the beach.  I had just come back from my swim in the pristine turquoise waters and was relaxed from reading a wonderful book about happiness. I truly enjoyed the clean beaches, the smell of the salt sprayed air, and the feeling the warm sand caked to my skin. I was whistling and excited from my lovely day as I was rinsing off the sand at home.  I reached for my towel to dry off my face.  As I was drying, I felt something engage in a sprint from my shoulder, to my ankle and off the left side of my body.   I looked just in time to see the giant cockroach scurrying off my leg. 

No one had warned me about the colonies of roaches that at times even come out during the day. Although, I was well aware that cockroaches spread disease as my mother and many others had passed this information to me through time. I did not want to smash it with my shoe because I was afraid it might take my shoe and slap me back- it was so big. I normally do not kill bugs, cockroaches and mosquito’s being the exceptions; so I grabbed the can of raid and sprayed it. Due to the lack of ventilation, I inhaled some of the chemicals which immediately numbed my throat and mouth.  I watched the cockroach hiss and experience what seemed to be an inhumane death.  In that moment, I felt incredibly bad to have made something suffer.  Recently, I researched the roles of cockroaches in our ecosystem, disease spread by these pests, and the effects of chemicals on their systems as well as humans.

            In my research, I could not find record of direct transmission of any disease from a cockroach to a human being. There is record that they leave feces trails in order to navigate. This could lead scientists to infer that our little friends could spread disease to humans.  Let me point out that cats stand in their litter boxes and walk on the counters and we are not eradicating them for spreading disease in our homes.  I found many fascinating facts about cockroaches that you may be interested in reading.  I was able to see many different points of views on which seemed like such an insignificant topic.  

  I found a problem with my ability to think outside what I read on a cereal box or hear from trusted resources.  I am working on changing the way I think about the world around me.  I am learning to find the significance in everything.  Because when I make uneducated decisions like using Raid in a unventilated room to kill a cockroaches. In another perspective, I was choosing to inhale poison that I did not understand in order to kill something that I knew nothing about.  I believe this type of thinking is the same ignorance that caused Hiroshima and the Holocaust. 

In the Holocaust, people stated that they had no idea that heinous actions were occurring.  People did not know because they did not educate themselves of the truth.  They did not seek to understand the reality occurring to their countrymen and women.  I am not saying that we should save the cockroaches and ban bug spray. I am saying every time we do something, no matter of insignificant the action may seem to take a moment to be completely aware of what we are doing.  It is our ability to think from different angels even in the smallest or what seem to be most insignificant situations.  I believe Victor Frankl warned us that it is our aversion to the truth and the lack of desire to truly understand any given circumstance that leads to much demise.  Dr Frankl concludes his book with a startling quote “Since Auschwitz we know what man is capable of and since Hiroshima we know what is at stake.”

Amber Stubbs
Honolulu, 2011