Tosh's Journal: July 27, 2023
My Thoughts on Ants, Mick Jagger's 80th Birthday, and the Passing of Sinéad O’Connor
As I woke up this morning, it finally struck me that we are genuinely in the Summer Season. The Ants invaded all our sensitive areas in the kitchen and bathrooms. I keep imagining that when I sit down on the toilet, one of these primitive but sophisticated eusocial insects may be entering my anal opening or even as I lie down, perhaps exploring my inner ear drum. And once there, what happens? I’m sure they bring disease and, at the very least, cooties. The more moisture that comes out of my body, the more I feel these insects attract me like I am the sweetest hunk of honey.
I have a difficult time with respect to killing Ants due that they are a very complex and intelligent culture. They have the ability to communicate with each other and have a rigorous social structure where they all take part in that landscape. On the other hand, they don’t care about Humans or what they think; they are the guests that refuse to leave the party. Still, I’m touched when I have killed an Ant, and I notice that a few of them would come by the deceased insect and pick it up and take it back to their nest. It’s very moving.
At the same time, I’m thinking of Mick Jagger being 80 years old and the sad death of Sinéad O’Connor. The combination of these two figures represents aging and the possibility of death being always around the corner. I think Jagger will live for a long time, and painfully so, one suspected that O’Connor could be counted by the seconds on this earth. People are commenting on her bravery, which is genuinely her character. It is not like she could turn it on or off; it is what it is. Jagger, on the other hand, knows how to turn it off. I genuinely believe that he saw the entrance of hell being on the stage at Altamont and facing that audience. Fear is felt, but I can see his intelligence kicking in and thinking to himself I’m not going there. After that series of moments in front of that audience, Jagger became a different person. Sinéad, I don’t think, had that ability to avoid the entrance, not because she wanted to do so, but because she followed an inner life that couldn’t censor or avoid danger. Her audience would want to hug or put their arm around her to protect this artist from harm, but one would never do that to Jagger. Then again, O’Connor is a person who had real situations in her life that did cause her harm. Some people I know have conditions or a type of personality that are impossible to help. Therefore one is on the second-story window looking down and realizing there is nothing they can do about it.
I met Mick Jagger once when I was nine and never met Sinéad O’Connor. Yet, their fame makes it possible for me to write about them from a distance, and like the ants, I see but do not know, I can be touched emotionally when they pick up their dead and remove them to another space or place. Jagger is skilled and well-trained in his life, and he knows his boundaries. O’Connor knew how to use her art to express her emotional and physical landscape. Both are equally important and, of course, worthy of their contributions to culture and life. And watching Ant's social culture, I learn from that as well.
Thanks Tosh insightful about ants and Rock Stars. Both strong willed yet vulnerable.