At our place on the Potomac River, my wife has planted lavender next to our porch. The reason is simple. It’s pretty, has a nice aroma, and attracts butterflies. But it also attracts bees, who seem to love it so much that when people pass by, they are not distracted from doing what bees like to do from lavender, collect pollen.
Bees are fascinating creatures. With over 20,000 known species, they include honeybees, bumblebees, and stingless bees, all of which live in highly hierarchical colonies. Yet many bee species live in solitude.
Bees are admirably diligent and very different from carnivorous or omnivorous insects. Bees are herbivores, specifically feeding on nectar as a carbohydrate source for metabolic energy, pollen for protein, and other nutrients to feed their larvae.
Like people, bees are found on every continent except Antarctica. And they are necessary for habitats on the planet, where insect-pollinated flowering plants are the direct beneficiaries of diligent bees.
They seem quite happy working. In that regard, the bee unemployment rate is almost nonexistent. They don’t complain that they don’t have paid sick leave or demand that certain bees deserve preferential treatment based on the species. Bees don’t have unions. They are just happy to have a job and focus on what needs to be done and do it well. Bees don’t expect that others will do their work for them. They know their skill set and set about it every day that the weather permits.
Bees don’t lobby others for special treatment. They don’t expect it. All they expect is that life will present itself for the single opportunity that is before them. To make things better. And on that score, they are much needed. Agricultural sprays are their most profound threat. They are exposed to many chemical stressors. The primary culprits are synthetic agrochemicals and industrial pollutants that threaten vital pollinators.
Bees play an important role in pollinating flowering plants, like our apple, peach, and cherry trees at the river that cross-pollinate to produce fruit. Remarkably, it’s estimated that one-third of our food supply depends on pollination by insects and birds. But by far the bulk of that work is accomplished by bees in the wild or otherwise domesticated by beekeepers.
Yet in the past fifty-plus years, there has been an alarming decline among species of wild bees and related pollinators. Some of that is due to the stress created by increased parasites and disease, residential pesticide use, and a concomitant reduction in the number of wild flowers overtaken by development, biodiversity loss, and ecosystem degradation. I suppose that if our bees at the river could talk, they would thank my wife for planting the lavender that they are so eagerly engaged with daily. Yet all they know is that it is there and important to what they do. They work tirelessly, and just watching them suggests contrasts for me.
Look at our society and culture today. Take note of how many people expect that the government will take care of them from cradle to grave, meeting their every need. That spending other people’s money is the way to get ahead in life. Perish the thought that you might have to work, even five days of the week. Our lavender-tending bees have no such expectations: they live for the opportunity to work. They are made to work as we are, created to tend to the earth and care for all that the Creator made. Bees don’t believe “we have it coming to us.” They go out and get it, and then use their efforts to help themselves and even us. They instinctively fulfill the purpose for which they are made. In that regard, their quite personal work ethic abounds in the form of a gift to others.
So many in our society believe they should be the recipient of gifts, not be so to others. Add to that sorrowful lot those in the political class who are delighted to spend other people’s money, until there is none left to spend, requiring that we go into a disastrous cycle of debt that our children and grandchildren will bear. At the same time, too many people miss the dignity and character-building of hard work. Unlike bees, the elected class loves having others do the work while they enjoy the honey of power and prestige. You would think those who rule over us would take note of how the work ethic has been undermined in America. They seem quite enamored of burdening us with overregulation, excessive taxation, and endless pontification about how much good they are doing for us. Bees don’t bother us with such gaslighting.
Our river bees offer a better example for all. Hard work matters. Diligence is important, necessary, and beneficial to others. We need to be more like bees.
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