The Voice of the Infinite in the Small: Re-Visioning the Insect-Human Connection - Softcover

Lauck, Joanne Elizabeth

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1570629595 ISBN 13: 9781570629594

Publisher: Shambhala, 2002

Synopsis

Should we have compassion and respect for creeping, buzzing, stinging creatures? Joanne Lauck says yes—and challenges the reader to view six- and eight-legged beings as messengers, guides, initiatory figures, and friends. Drawing on myth, touching and funny anecdotes, Native American wisdom, and science, Lauck shows how we can live in harmony with insects, healing an inner aspect of ourselves in the process.

About this title

About the Author

Joanne Elizabeth Lauck is a writer, an environmental educator, an inner-city high school teacher, a wildlife rehabilitator, and the founder and director of Catalyst, a nonprofit organization created to provide at-risk teens with unorthodox opportunities for personal growth and empowerment. Her writing consistently focuses on the healing potential of the human-animal bond, and she is currently working on a series of children's books based on her elementary school elective called "Thinking Like a Bug." She has presented her work with insects at conferences throughout the United States and Canada.

From the Inside Flap

ve compassion and respect for creeping, buzzing, stinging creatures? Joanne Lauck says yes and challenges the reader to view six- and eight-legged beings as messengers, guides, initiatory figures, and friends. Drawing on myth, touching and funny anecdotes, Native American wisdom, and science, Lauck shows how we can live in harmony with insects, healing an inner aspect of ourselves in the process.

Reviews

In this newly revised and expanded edition of an earlier work, Lauck, an environmental educator, details a great deal of interesting information about insects and encourages readers to make an effort to understand them. Lauck contends that the connection between insects and humans has been broken by a culture that teaches us to hate and kill earth's smallest creatures, and to pollute the environment with dangerous insecticides. To counteract the bad publicity given to insects, the author draws on stories and myths from other societies. Lauck explains, for example, that indigenous people such as the Kwakiutl of British Columbia believe that "creatures like the bee, wasp, midge, mosquito, and gnat played a role in creation." Lauck also relies on scientific evidence to make her point that humans have not protected biodiversity; on the contrary, humans have been wantonly destroying the ecology of wild regions that were home to many creatures and plants. Mosquitoes, insects that humans are continually seeking to kill, actually protect the rain forests because they make them uninhabitable to people. The author presents an array of positive insect qualities such as the cleanliness of cockroaches and the intricate communication system of bees. However, some readers may feel that her suggestion to "share our blood with an occasional mosquito or two" is going too far.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Shambhala
• Publication date: 2002
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1570629595
• ISBN 13: 9781570629594
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 256