WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:01.980 align:middle line:90% 00:00:01.980 --> 00:00:04.230 align:middle line:84% I'm going to finish by reading from the new book. 00:00:04.230 --> 00:00:06.270 align:middle line:84% And just to introduce it a little bit, 00:00:06.270 --> 00:00:11.810 align:middle line:84% it's called Daddy Long Legs, The Natural Education of a Father. 00:00:11.810 --> 00:00:13.790 align:middle line:84% It's what I would consider a braided memoir, 00:00:13.790 --> 00:00:16.100 align:middle line:84% and there's three sort of major strands in it. 00:00:16.100 --> 00:00:19.790 align:middle line:84% One has to do with turning 40 and some serious health 00:00:19.790 --> 00:00:23.900 align:middle line:84% issues I was facing early in that spring, and all the issues 00:00:23.900 --> 00:00:26.720 align:middle line:84% of mortality and thinking about the meaning of life that 00:00:26.720 --> 00:00:29.580 align:middle line:84% occurs at middle age, especially my life as a father 00:00:29.580 --> 00:00:31.370 align:middle line:90% and as a husband. 00:00:31.370 --> 00:00:33.680 align:middle line:84% At the same time, my grandmother, 00:00:33.680 --> 00:00:36.650 align:middle line:84% who I mentioned earlier, the one that took me on the tour, 00:00:36.650 --> 00:00:38.630 align:middle line:84% who lived in Green Valley for 20 years, 00:00:38.630 --> 00:00:41.543 align:middle line:84% she had moved back to Fort Dodge after my grandfather-- 00:00:41.543 --> 00:00:44.210 align:middle line:84% she could no longer take care of him, he had suffered a stroke-- 00:00:44.210 --> 00:00:47.060 align:middle line:84% and had been in Fort Dodge for quite a while. 00:00:47.060 --> 00:00:48.380 align:middle line:90% She was 92. 00:00:48.380 --> 00:00:51.540 align:middle line:84% And she decided that she'd had enough of the medications. 00:00:51.540 --> 00:00:52.790 align:middle line:90% They'd made her uncomfortable. 00:00:52.790 --> 00:00:53.870 align:middle line:90% They made her foggy. 00:00:53.870 --> 00:00:57.750 align:middle line:84% She wanted to end her life with some dignity and pain-free. 00:00:57.750 --> 00:00:59.270 align:middle line:90% So she just decided, that's it. 00:00:59.270 --> 00:01:00.650 align:middle line:84% I'm not going to be taking those. 00:01:00.650 --> 00:01:02.660 align:middle line:90% You know Grandma Katherine. 00:01:02.660 --> 00:01:04.920 align:middle line:84% Once she decides something, that was it. 00:01:04.920 --> 00:01:07.490 align:middle line:84% She was going to end her life on her terms. 00:01:07.490 --> 00:01:10.440 align:middle line:84% And so the doctor gave her a couple of months to live. 00:01:10.440 --> 00:01:12.695 align:middle line:84% I was very close to her, as some of you 00:01:12.695 --> 00:01:14.090 align:middle line:90% who have read this book know. 00:01:14.090 --> 00:01:16.775 align:middle line:84% My kids were very close to her, my young boys, 00:01:16.775 --> 00:01:18.150 align:middle line:84% the youngest of whom was Spencer, 00:01:18.150 --> 00:01:20.570 align:middle line:90% who was three at the time. 00:01:20.570 --> 00:01:22.460 align:middle line:84% And she was very open with them about this. 00:01:22.460 --> 00:01:23.960 align:middle line:84% And so the challenge for Steph and I 00:01:23.960 --> 00:01:28.220 align:middle line:84% became how to talk to the kids about this impending loss. 00:01:28.220 --> 00:01:31.580 align:middle line:84% Nature, the surrounding environment, 00:01:31.580 --> 00:01:34.430 align:middle line:84% kind of provided the vocabulary for that, 00:01:34.430 --> 00:01:36.723 align:middle line:84% in particular the Loess Hills, where we live. 00:01:36.723 --> 00:01:38.140 align:middle line:84% Some of you are familiar with Iowa 00:01:38.140 --> 00:01:39.432 align:middle line:90% and know about the Loess Hills. 00:01:39.432 --> 00:01:42.200 align:middle line:84% They're a international treasure. 00:01:42.200 --> 00:01:45.230 align:middle line:84% They are glacial drift hills, 300 feet high, 00:01:45.230 --> 00:01:46.790 align:middle line:90% on the western borders of Iowa. 00:01:46.790 --> 00:01:50.990 align:middle line:84% They go along the western edge of the state, 00:01:50.990 --> 00:01:54.110 align:middle line:84% along the Missouri River, from Minnesota down to Missouri. 00:01:54.110 --> 00:01:57.320 align:middle line:84% The only place in the world that has Loess deposits like that 00:01:57.320 --> 00:01:59.300 align:middle line:84% is China, along the Yellow River, 00:01:59.300 --> 00:02:01.970 align:middle line:84% which is where the Yellow River got its name, from that soil. 00:02:01.970 --> 00:02:04.320 align:middle line:84% But those have been mostly destroyed. 00:02:04.320 --> 00:02:08.822 align:middle line:84% So these are truly unique landforms, but also endangered. 00:02:08.822 --> 00:02:10.280 align:middle line:84% One day they'll be there, and then, 00:02:10.280 --> 00:02:12.500 align:middle line:84% the next day, an entire hill will be gone, 00:02:12.500 --> 00:02:14.670 align:middle line:90% used for landfill. 00:02:14.670 --> 00:02:16.190 align:middle line:84% So there's some ongoing challenges 00:02:16.190 --> 00:02:18.660 align:middle line:84% in trying to preserve this unique ecosystem. 00:02:18.660 --> 00:02:20.810 align:middle line:84% So there's issues of mortality and renewal 00:02:20.810 --> 00:02:23.270 align:middle line:84% flowing through that landscape that 00:02:23.270 --> 00:02:28.280 align:middle line:84% fed into the conversation we were having with the kids. 00:02:28.280 --> 00:02:31.280 align:middle line:84% This piece is called "Praying Mantis." 00:02:31.280 --> 00:02:36.580 align:middle line:84% And I think you'll see some of those themes in here. 00:02:36.580 --> 00:02:44.270 align:middle line:84% This is all taking place in the spring of 2006. 00:02:44.270 --> 00:02:46.340 align:middle line:84% Ben spotted the praying mantis from the back seat 00:02:46.340 --> 00:02:47.908 align:middle line:90% of our parked car. 00:02:47.908 --> 00:02:49.700 align:middle line:84% She was in the window of the Chinese buffet 00:02:49.700 --> 00:02:53.150 align:middle line:84% we had just left, a good 15 feet away, an indistinguishable 00:02:53.150 --> 00:02:54.830 align:middle line:90% twig, from my point of view. 00:02:54.830 --> 00:02:55.880 align:middle line:90% "It's not a twig, Dad. 00:02:55.880 --> 00:02:58.460 align:middle line:90% It's a ginormous bug." 00:02:58.460 --> 00:03:00.110 align:middle line:90% Then again, this is Ben. 00:03:00.110 --> 00:03:03.920 align:middle line:84% At five years old, he can spot a terror at almost any distance. 00:03:03.920 --> 00:03:07.070 align:middle line:84% With him along, no spider web tragedy goes unnoticed. 00:03:07.070 --> 00:03:10.310 align:middle line:84% "I guess that fly wishes he'd slept in today, right Dad?" 00:03:10.310 --> 00:03:12.597 align:middle line:90% No roadkill goes unquestioned. 00:03:12.597 --> 00:03:14.930 align:middle line:84% "I guess that deer didn't look both ways before crossing 00:03:14.930 --> 00:03:17.330 align:middle line:90% the highway, right Dad?" 00:03:17.330 --> 00:03:21.130 align:middle line:84% No trip to the movie rental store is ever entirely benign. 00:03:21.130 --> 00:03:23.630 align:middle line:84% "I guess we won't be able to rent that movie way over there, 00:03:23.630 --> 00:03:28.270 align:middle line:84% the one the scary man with the bloody chainsaw, will we Dad?" 00:03:28.270 --> 00:03:29.770 align:middle line:84% "So what are you waiting for, Dad?" 00:03:29.770 --> 00:03:30.460 align:middle line:90% Ben said. 00:03:30.460 --> 00:03:33.580 align:middle line:84% "Go and save that bug before it gets hurt." 00:03:33.580 --> 00:03:34.420 align:middle line:90% He was right. 00:03:34.420 --> 00:03:36.820 align:middle line:84% The window of a Chinese buffet in downtown Omaha 00:03:36.820 --> 00:03:40.300 align:middle line:84% did not appear to be ideal mantid habitat. 00:03:40.300 --> 00:03:42.640 align:middle line:84% A rescue operation seemed in order. 00:03:42.640 --> 00:03:45.100 align:middle line:84% Still, given our history with this insect, 00:03:45.100 --> 00:03:48.190 align:middle line:84% Ben's request struck me as a little surprising. 00:03:48.190 --> 00:03:49.780 align:middle line:84% His first encounter with a mantis 00:03:49.780 --> 00:03:52.420 align:middle line:84% occurred the year before when I took him to see an IMAX film 00:03:52.420 --> 00:03:53.560 align:middle line:90% called Bugs! 00:03:53.560 --> 00:03:55.750 align:middle line:90% A Rainforest Adventure. 00:03:55.750 --> 00:03:58.990 align:middle line:84% The newspaper described it as an exciting, informative film 00:03:58.990 --> 00:04:01.330 align:middle line:84% about endangered rainforest ecosystems, 00:04:01.330 --> 00:04:04.060 align:middle line:84% as seen from the perspective of insects. 00:04:04.060 --> 00:04:06.640 align:middle line:84% "Good for the entire family," it said. 00:04:06.640 --> 00:04:09.220 align:middle line:90% And even better, it was 3D. 00:04:09.220 --> 00:04:12.220 align:middle line:84% Soon after Ben and I settled into our seats at the theater 00:04:12.220 --> 00:04:14.590 align:middle line:84% and put on our glasses, we found ourselves 00:04:14.590 --> 00:04:17.649 align:middle line:84% lost in the lush, life-tangled tapestry of the Borneo 00:04:17.649 --> 00:04:19.240 align:middle line:90% rainforest. 00:04:19.240 --> 00:04:21.910 align:middle line:84% The plot alternately followed the lives and adventures 00:04:21.910 --> 00:04:26.050 align:middle line:84% of two insects, Papilio, the butterfly, and Hierodula, 00:04:26.050 --> 00:04:27.880 align:middle line:90% the praying mantis. 00:04:27.880 --> 00:04:29.770 align:middle line:84% We watched Papilio from her early days 00:04:29.770 --> 00:04:32.500 align:middle line:84% as a caterpillar to her emergence from her chrysalis, 00:04:32.500 --> 00:04:34.660 align:middle line:84% becoming a glorious flicker of color 00:04:34.660 --> 00:04:36.850 align:middle line:90% against the mass of green. 00:04:36.850 --> 00:04:39.460 align:middle line:84% Hierodula, along with hundreds of his siblings, 00:04:39.460 --> 00:04:41.920 align:middle line:84% burst from a papery egg case and set off 00:04:41.920 --> 00:04:43.660 align:middle line:84% to eat his way through the jungle, 00:04:43.660 --> 00:04:46.720 align:middle line:84% consuming a number of anonymous insects, just inches, 00:04:46.720 --> 00:04:49.870 align:middle line:90% it seemed, from our faces. 00:04:49.870 --> 00:04:52.120 align:middle line:84% As the film progressed, the stories 00:04:52.120 --> 00:04:55.930 align:middle line:84% of Papilio and Hierodula became intertwined, 00:04:55.930 --> 00:04:58.930 align:middle line:84% both of them occupying the same abandoned decrepit 00:04:58.930 --> 00:05:00.880 align:middle line:90% hut along a river. 00:05:00.880 --> 00:05:02.740 align:middle line:84% I suppose I should have known what 00:05:02.740 --> 00:05:07.060 align:middle line:84% was going to happen, especially with narrator Judi 00:05:07.060 --> 00:05:12.880 align:middle line:84% Dench tossing out lines like, "You're on somebody's menu 00:05:12.880 --> 00:05:15.820 align:middle line:90% the moment you hatch." 00:05:15.820 --> 00:05:18.820 align:middle line:84% But I didn't see it coming, not even when 00:05:18.820 --> 00:05:21.940 align:middle line:84% Papilio landed on the same leaf occupied by Hierodula. 00:05:21.940 --> 00:05:24.160 align:middle line:90% What were the chances? 00:05:24.160 --> 00:05:26.650 align:middle line:84% Not even when they moved closer and closer to each other, 00:05:26.650 --> 00:05:28.840 align:middle line:90% the music rising dramatically. 00:05:28.840 --> 00:05:32.620 align:middle line:84% I didn't see it until the moment when, with a quick jerk, 00:05:32.620 --> 00:05:37.570 align:middle line:84% Hierodula snatch Papilio with his four legs and ate her. 00:05:37.570 --> 00:05:41.080 align:middle line:84% There was a collective gasp in the theater 00:05:41.080 --> 00:05:42.790 align:middle line:90% and the children started crying. 00:05:42.790 --> 00:05:45.910 align:middle line:90% 00:05:45.910 --> 00:05:48.130 align:middle line:90% Ben was furious. 00:05:48.130 --> 00:05:49.960 align:middle line:84% "Get away from her," he screamed, whacking 00:05:49.960 --> 00:05:52.870 align:middle line:90% at the screen, "Get away!" 00:05:52.870 --> 00:05:55.660 align:middle line:84% I'm not sure what I or anyone should have expected 00:05:55.660 --> 00:05:58.000 align:middle line:84% from a meeting of mantis and butterfly, 00:05:58.000 --> 00:06:00.820 align:middle line:90% but, like Ben, I was outraged. 00:06:00.820 --> 00:06:03.550 align:middle line:84% Why had there been no parental warning? 00:06:03.550 --> 00:06:06.230 align:middle line:90% Good for the entire family? 00:06:06.230 --> 00:06:08.140 align:middle line:84% This wasn't some anonymous fly in a web, 00:06:08.140 --> 00:06:11.620 align:middle line:84% this was Papilio, with whom the creators of this little horror 00:06:11.620 --> 00:06:15.220 align:middle line:84% flick had encouraged us to become emotionally involved. 00:06:15.220 --> 00:06:17.290 align:middle line:84% Now I, along with the rest of the parents, 00:06:17.290 --> 00:06:20.140 align:middle line:84% were left to deal with the aftermath. 00:06:20.140 --> 00:06:22.150 align:middle line:84% My first impulse was to comfort Ben 00:06:22.150 --> 00:06:24.790 align:middle line:84% by telling him that Hierodula would soon get his head eaten 00:06:24.790 --> 00:06:25.930 align:middle line:90% off while copulating. 00:06:25.930 --> 00:06:29.883 align:middle line:90% 00:06:29.883 --> 00:06:32.050 align:middle line:84% But that might have provoked even more uncomfortable 00:06:32.050 --> 00:06:32.740 align:middle line:90% questions. 00:06:32.740 --> 00:06:35.830 align:middle line:90% 00:06:35.830 --> 00:06:38.470 align:middle line:84% During the film's half-hearted denouement, 00:06:38.470 --> 00:06:40.750 align:middle line:84% I recalled similar nature films I'd seen 00:06:40.750 --> 00:06:42.583 align:middle line:90% during my own boyhood in Iowa. 00:06:42.583 --> 00:06:44.500 align:middle line:84% There was the one about a cougar and his mate. 00:06:44.500 --> 00:06:47.080 align:middle line:84% And though I can't remember the title, I do recall, 00:06:47.080 --> 00:06:49.420 align:middle line:84% after following their courtship for most of the film 00:06:49.420 --> 00:06:50.800 align:middle line:84% and then the birth of their cubs, 00:06:50.800 --> 00:06:54.130 align:middle line:84% the female fell to her death while trying to escape hunters. 00:06:54.130 --> 00:06:56.740 align:middle line:90% Typical Disney. 00:06:56.740 --> 00:06:59.080 align:middle line:84% The worst, though, were those television reruns, 00:06:59.080 --> 00:07:02.440 align:middle line:84% in the night, of 1940s and '50s animal films. 00:07:02.440 --> 00:07:05.290 align:middle line:84% Like Old Yeller, in which a boy is 00:07:05.290 --> 00:07:07.240 align:middle line:84% forced to shoot his beloved dog after it 00:07:07.240 --> 00:07:08.800 align:middle line:90% contracts rabies from a wolf. 00:07:08.800 --> 00:07:11.680 align:middle line:90% Yeah, see, we're already-- 00:07:11.680 --> 00:07:13.900 align:middle line:84% people are-- feel free to get into the fetal 00:07:13.900 --> 00:07:18.220 align:middle line:90% if you're having a flashback. 00:07:18.220 --> 00:07:26.140 align:middle line:84% And The Yearling, where another boy is forced to kill the deer 00:07:26.140 --> 00:07:28.600 align:middle line:84% he'd raised since it was a fawn because it began 00:07:28.600 --> 00:07:31.570 align:middle line:90% eating the family's corn crop. 00:07:31.570 --> 00:07:33.970 align:middle line:84% "Who cares about the stupid corn?" 00:07:33.970 --> 00:07:35.500 align:middle line:84% I bawled at the television screen 00:07:35.500 --> 00:07:38.485 align:middle line:84% as the boy walked off into the woods with his gun. 00:07:38.485 --> 00:07:40.360 align:middle line:84% For a long time afterwards, I had a hard time 00:07:40.360 --> 00:07:43.900 align:middle line:84% looking at a cornfield with anything but hatred, gagging 00:07:43.900 --> 00:07:47.950 align:middle line:84% whenever my mother put a steamy, buttery cob on my plate, 00:07:47.950 --> 00:07:49.510 align:middle line:84% which is a major problem in Iowa. 00:07:49.510 --> 00:07:52.060 align:middle line:90% 00:07:52.060 --> 00:07:53.950 align:middle line:84% The intended moral of The Yearling 00:07:53.950 --> 00:07:56.080 align:middle line:90% was the same as the other films. 00:07:56.080 --> 00:07:58.773 align:middle line:84% Death is a part of nature, a part of life. 00:07:58.773 --> 00:08:00.940 align:middle line:84% At least that's how those films were explained to me 00:08:00.940 --> 00:08:03.730 align:middle line:84% by the nervous grown-ups with whom I shared my feelings 00:08:03.730 --> 00:08:05.560 align:middle line:90% and questions about them. 00:08:05.560 --> 00:08:08.440 align:middle line:84% Now though, it seems to me that what those films were really 00:08:08.440 --> 00:08:11.350 align:middle line:84% about was teaching young boys that the first step 00:08:11.350 --> 00:08:14.410 align:middle line:84% toward becoming a man is killing what you love, 00:08:14.410 --> 00:08:17.620 align:middle line:90% killing your ability to love. 00:08:17.620 --> 00:08:19.750 align:middle line:90% But it wasn't just a boy thing. 00:08:19.750 --> 00:08:22.150 align:middle line:84% One Saturday while in junior high, my wife Stephanie 00:08:22.150 --> 00:08:25.330 align:middle line:84% was invited to go to the movies by a girl in her class 00:08:25.330 --> 00:08:28.930 align:middle line:84% whose older sister was dying of bone cancer. 00:08:28.930 --> 00:08:31.030 align:middle line:84% When the girl's mother picked Steph up in the car, 00:08:31.030 --> 00:08:34.357 align:middle line:84% the balding older sister smiled at them from the front seat. 00:08:34.357 --> 00:08:36.190 align:middle line:84% At the theater, they all settled in for what 00:08:36.190 --> 00:08:38.350 align:middle line:84% appeared to be a cute live-action film 00:08:38.350 --> 00:08:41.260 align:middle line:84% about a glacier fox and her pups. 00:08:41.260 --> 00:08:43.960 align:middle line:84% Within the first few minutes, however, the mother fox 00:08:43.960 --> 00:08:46.660 align:middle line:84% got shot, dragged herself back to the tree where she'd first 00:08:46.660 --> 00:08:48.280 align:middle line:90% met her mate, and died. 00:08:48.280 --> 00:08:51.820 align:middle line:84% Then, one by one, the pups died, including the blind runt 00:08:51.820 --> 00:08:54.040 align:middle line:84% who, one moment, was sitting near the rough Arctic 00:08:54.040 --> 00:08:56.710 align:middle line:84% sea shore, and, the next, was gone, 00:08:56.710 --> 00:09:01.300 align:middle line:84% the waves washing away his tiny paw prints in the sand. 00:09:01.300 --> 00:09:04.330 align:middle line:84% Steph remembers them all sobbing in the theater, especially 00:09:04.330 --> 00:09:05.530 align:middle line:90% the girl's mother. 00:09:05.530 --> 00:09:08.830 align:middle line:84% Even now, Steph can't talk reasonably about this film. 00:09:08.830 --> 00:09:11.230 align:middle line:90% "Abusive" is the term she uses. 00:09:11.230 --> 00:09:13.480 align:middle line:90% How is that film informative? 00:09:13.480 --> 00:09:17.690 align:middle line:84% What did it teach them that they didn't already know? 00:09:17.690 --> 00:09:21.500 align:middle line:84% Thankfully, Ben shed no tears after the IMAX film. 00:09:21.500 --> 00:09:23.780 align:middle line:84% And though angry with Hierodula, it 00:09:23.780 --> 00:09:27.410 align:middle line:84% seemed not to have prejudiced him against mantids in general. 00:09:27.410 --> 00:09:29.120 align:middle line:84% In the parking lot of the Chinese buffet, 00:09:29.120 --> 00:09:32.210 align:middle line:84% Ben continued to plead with me to help the mantis perched 00:09:32.210 --> 00:09:33.170 align:middle line:90% in the window. 00:09:33.170 --> 00:09:35.090 align:middle line:90% Steph even chimed in. 00:09:35.090 --> 00:09:37.160 align:middle line:84% "What are you waiting for, Jim?" she chided. 00:09:37.160 --> 00:09:41.090 align:middle line:84% "Get out there and save that mantis." 00:09:41.090 --> 00:09:45.230 align:middle line:84% She was referring to Jim Fowler, from the old Mutual 00:09:45.230 --> 00:09:47.420 align:middle line:84% of Omaha's Wild Kingdom television 00:09:47.420 --> 00:09:52.340 align:middle line:84% show, which ran on Sunday nights during our childhoods. 00:09:52.340 --> 00:09:54.050 align:middle line:84% On Wild Kingdom, any problem could 00:09:54.050 --> 00:09:56.660 align:middle line:84% be fixed if you had a muscular white man, a large net, 00:09:56.660 --> 00:09:58.670 align:middle line:84% a tranquilizer gun, and a helicopter. 00:09:58.670 --> 00:10:01.400 align:middle line:90% 00:10:01.400 --> 00:10:04.820 align:middle line:84% The episodes, hosted by silver-haired Marlin Perkins 00:10:04.820 --> 00:10:08.180 align:middle line:84% and his pencil mustache, took place all over the world, 00:10:08.180 --> 00:10:11.090 align:middle line:84% but inevitably included moving the featured animal 00:10:11.090 --> 00:10:17.090 align:middle line:84% to more ideal habitat, which, to my way of thinking back then, 00:10:17.090 --> 00:10:19.940 align:middle line:84% meant it would never be hunted, never be in danger 00:10:19.940 --> 00:10:22.100 align:middle line:90% or know pain or fear. 00:10:22.100 --> 00:10:26.180 align:middle line:84% The images of various kinds of legs and tails 00:10:26.180 --> 00:10:28.130 align:middle line:84% sticking out from a net or a cage, 00:10:28.130 --> 00:10:31.130 align:middle line:84% then going airborne into a sunset, 00:10:31.130 --> 00:10:36.110 align:middle line:84% is probably one of my earliest impressions of mercy. 00:10:36.110 --> 00:10:38.300 align:middle line:84% So I retrieved the crumpled sandwich baggie 00:10:38.300 --> 00:10:41.300 align:middle line:84% from beneath my seat and stepped out of the car. 00:10:41.300 --> 00:10:42.740 align:middle line:84% As I approached the mantis, which 00:10:42.740 --> 00:10:49.430 align:middle line:84% Spencer, our three-year-old, had already named Penny, 00:10:49.430 --> 00:10:52.310 align:middle line:84% I noticed she was much larger than expected. 00:10:52.310 --> 00:10:56.870 align:middle line:84% Perhaps six inches, and not at all grateful looking. 00:10:56.870 --> 00:10:59.810 align:middle line:84% I retreated to the car, enduing a number of jeers, 00:10:59.810 --> 00:11:02.960 align:middle line:84% to grab a pencil which I could use to guide her into the bag. 00:11:02.960 --> 00:11:04.890 align:middle line:90% Penny was having none of it. 00:11:04.890 --> 00:11:08.210 align:middle line:84% She reared up and snapped at me with her big spiny four legs. 00:11:08.210 --> 00:11:12.200 align:middle line:84% There I was, just like Jim, with his rippling tanned muscles 00:11:12.200 --> 00:11:15.740 align:middle line:84% and big net, facing down the giant anaconda or lion 00:11:15.740 --> 00:11:18.830 align:middle line:84% or crocodile, except I was a skinny middle-aged man 00:11:18.830 --> 00:11:22.040 align:middle line:84% with a pencil and a sandwich baggie. 00:11:22.040 --> 00:11:25.370 align:middle line:84% Ben was Marlin Perkins, narrating and shouting 00:11:25.370 --> 00:11:28.850 align:middle line:84% out instructions from the safety of the helicopter. 00:11:28.850 --> 00:11:29.600 align:middle line:90% "Watch out, Dad. 00:11:29.600 --> 00:11:30.140 align:middle line:90% She could bite. 00:11:30.140 --> 00:11:30.560 align:middle line:90% There you go. 00:11:30.560 --> 00:11:32.060 align:middle line:84% Get her-- don't let her escape, Dad. 00:11:32.060 --> 00:11:35.660 align:middle line:84% Don't-- just get her in the bag, Dad." 00:11:35.660 --> 00:11:37.550 align:middle line:90% Which I finally did. 00:11:37.550 --> 00:11:39.800 align:middle line:84% And, mission accomplished, we transported the mantis 00:11:39.800 --> 00:11:43.370 align:middle line:84% to more ideal habitat, our backyard. 00:11:43.370 --> 00:11:46.130 align:middle line:84% Near the lilacs at sunset, Ben and Spencer 00:11:46.130 --> 00:11:49.520 align:middle line:84% took turns holding the bag to look at her up close. 00:11:49.520 --> 00:11:52.370 align:middle line:84% Penny took a couple of snaps at both of them. 00:11:52.370 --> 00:11:53.990 align:middle line:90% She was truly ferocious. 00:11:53.990 --> 00:11:56.150 align:middle line:84% And I experienced a moment of sympathy 00:11:56.150 --> 00:11:58.640 align:middle line:84% for all the unsuspecting bugs in our yard, 00:11:58.640 --> 00:12:00.890 align:middle line:84% including the local Hierodula, who 00:12:00.890 --> 00:12:04.400 align:middle line:84% would make the mistake of falling for her deadly charm. 00:12:04.400 --> 00:12:08.240 align:middle line:84% We let her out onto a rhubarb leaf, another very dangerous 00:12:08.240 --> 00:12:10.970 align:middle line:84% thing, where she continued to face us down, 00:12:10.970 --> 00:12:14.060 align:middle line:84% swaying back and forth, poised to strike. 00:12:14.060 --> 00:12:16.640 align:middle line:84% As we stepped away, we looked back one more time 00:12:16.640 --> 00:12:19.730 align:middle line:84% to see the dark slice of her body move off the leaf 00:12:19.730 --> 00:12:21.030 align:middle line:90% and disappear. 00:12:21.030 --> 00:12:22.880 align:middle line:84% It would be the last we saw of Penny. 00:12:22.880 --> 00:12:27.350 align:middle line:84% But when winter came, we'd find a number of empty egg sacks 00:12:27.350 --> 00:12:31.010 align:middle line:84% in the overgrown, jungly areas of the yard. 00:12:31.010 --> 00:12:33.410 align:middle line:84% Back inside, we tucked the boys into their bunk beds 00:12:33.410 --> 00:12:34.790 align:middle line:90% and turned off the lights. 00:12:34.790 --> 00:12:37.220 align:middle line:84% Ben folded his hands and started his nightly prayer, 00:12:37.220 --> 00:12:38.570 align:middle line:90% the children's prayer. 00:12:38.570 --> 00:12:40.130 align:middle line:90% "Now I lay me down to sleep. 00:12:40.130 --> 00:12:42.020 align:middle line:90% I pray the Lord my soul to keep. 00:12:42.020 --> 00:12:43.760 align:middle line:84% Guide me through the starry night, 00:12:43.760 --> 00:12:46.730 align:middle line:84% and wake me up in the morning light." 00:12:46.730 --> 00:12:51.860 align:middle line:84% This was the modern, toned-down version, 00:12:51.860 --> 00:12:54.060 align:middle line:84% which he had learned from a musical book of prayers 00:12:54.060 --> 00:12:57.260 align:middle line:84% their great grandmother Katherine had given them. 00:12:57.260 --> 00:12:59.030 align:middle line:84% This version replaced the final line 00:12:59.030 --> 00:13:01.040 align:middle line:84% that haunted me and so many other children 00:13:01.040 --> 00:13:03.560 align:middle line:90% from my generation and earlier. 00:13:03.560 --> 00:13:07.340 align:middle line:84% "If I should die before I wake, I 00:13:07.340 --> 00:13:10.370 align:middle line:90% pray the Lord my soul to take." 00:13:10.370 --> 00:13:12.920 align:middle line:84% The lost line hearkens back to prairie nights 00:13:12.920 --> 00:13:15.230 align:middle line:84% during previous decades and centuries, 00:13:15.230 --> 00:13:18.710 align:middle line:84% when children did, in fact, die in their sleep, in droves, 00:13:18.710 --> 00:13:21.830 align:middle line:84% of disease and hunger and other deprivations. 00:13:21.830 --> 00:13:25.040 align:middle line:84% Their tombstones fill the small pioneer cemeteries 00:13:25.040 --> 00:13:27.770 align:middle line:84% dotting the rural Midwestern landscapes, hidden 00:13:27.770 --> 00:13:31.430 align:middle line:84% among patches of prairie grasses and wildflowers, a remnant 00:13:31.430 --> 00:13:34.340 align:middle line:84% of the land as it was then, when it claimed them, 00:13:34.340 --> 00:13:39.250 align:middle line:84% as wild and beautiful and dangerous as the rainforest. 00:13:39.250 --> 00:13:41.740 align:middle line:84% There are still dangers here, anywhere, 00:13:41.740 --> 00:13:43.570 align:middle line:90% but who wants to think of them? 00:13:43.570 --> 00:13:45.180 align:middle line:90% Ben did. 00:13:45.180 --> 00:13:47.190 align:middle line:84% "Please God," he said, hands crossed 00:13:47.190 --> 00:13:49.930 align:middle line:84% under his chin, his eyes staring through the ceiling. 00:13:49.930 --> 00:13:51.120 align:middle line:90% "Take care of Penny. 00:13:51.120 --> 00:13:53.850 align:middle line:84% And help her find lots to eat, and don't let anything 00:13:53.850 --> 00:13:55.650 align:middle line:90% hurt her." 00:13:55.650 --> 00:13:59.220 align:middle line:84% Outside in the yard, beyond sight, was the answer. 00:13:59.220 --> 00:14:01.110 align:middle line:84% Not quite the spirit of mercy that 00:14:01.110 --> 00:14:04.470 align:middle line:84% inspired Ben's prayer, but a prayer nonetheless. 00:14:04.470 --> 00:14:08.460 align:middle line:84% Four arms crossed, eyes on the promising darkness. 00:14:08.460 --> 00:14:09.180 align:middle line:90% Thank you. 00:14:09.180 --> 00:14:12.519 align:middle line:90% [APPLAUSE] 00:14:12.519 --> 00:14:18.720 align:middle line:90% 00:14:18.720 --> 00:14:20.480 align:middle line:90% Thank you. 00:14:20.480 --> 00:14:25.000 align:middle line:90%